


The Ballad Of Love And Hate

by MythicalLucy



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Cowboys & Cowgirls, Friendship, M/M, Relationship(s), Western, rhink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-08 09:23:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 43,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6848770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythicalLucy/pseuds/MythicalLucy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett is the sheriff of a small town called Buies Creek and his life seems to be perfect, until a newcomer comes into his town to cause some trouble...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Stranger

The tall man brushed his fingers through his hair, before he grabbed the cowboy hat next to him. He liked his hair, so he didn't mind spending a bit more time in the bathroom to style each strand towards the sky, even though most people wouldn't see it beneath his hat. But he knew that he was obliged to wear it because of his job. So he gently placed the hat on top of his blond strands and examined his green eyes in the mirror for a moment. His hands straightened his vest and he polished the sheriff's badge with his shirtsleeve, before looking up once more. When a smile appeared on his lips, he turned around to leave the room.  
He closed the door to his living quarters behind him, and walked down the stairs, which led him right into his office. He was glad that his office wasn’t next to the county jail, like it was in some other towns, because he wouldn't feel safe sleeping next to the prisoners. Although there were rarely criminals needing imprisonment in his town. The young sheriff, who went by the name Rhett James McLaughlin, was actually pretty proud of himself. His town was filled with kind people and the only 'crimes' he had to deal with were small fights that happened whenever the men drank too much in the saloon, and of course when strangers came into town, looking for trouble. But besides that, he had a relaxing life as a sheriff and he loved it the way it was.  
He walked down the street and greeted some people with a tap on his hat and a slight nod. While the men responded the same way, the women giggled shyly and made a curtsey for him. Most of them would avert their eyes in embarrassment, whenever he gave them a smile and he knew all too well that most of the ladies in this town were trying to win his affections. He was flattered by their attention, however no woman had ever managed to steal his heart. 

 

When he walked past the barber, who was sweeping his front porch, he heard a loud voice yelling: “Good morning, Sheriff McLaughlin! When will you come over so I can trim your beard again?” Rhett stopped and turned to the man with short, brown hair. “Maybe in one or two days, Edward. Depending on my duties.” The other man chuckled and answered: “Alright. I'll reserve your seat. I don't want our sheriff to look bad for the festival!” “Thanks, Eddie.” Rhett continued to walk down the street and soon his thoughts turned to the festival. It was taking place in a few days and everyone in town was excited about it. But the only thing Rhett enjoyed at festivals was the music - everything else could lead to trouble.  
After he visited a few shops and chatted with some folks, he arrived at the county jail. A blonde woman, a few years younger than him, arose from her desk the moment he walked into the building.  
“Good morning, Sheriff McLaughlin!” She said with a cheerful voice, while saluting him. He chuckled and shook his head slightly, while he responded: “Christy, how many times do I have to tell you, that you don't need to greet me so formally?” Her cheeks turned red and she brought down her hand along with her head. “I'm sorry, Sheriff Rhett. I'm just so used to it.” “It's okay. Anything I need to know?” She quickly grabbed some papers and handed them to him. “Yes. The prisoner from Greenville was picked up this morning.” “Oh, good to hear that. I couldn't stand his attitude. He didn't bother you too much, did he?” Rhett murmured, while he looked through the papers. Christy shook her head and smiled a bit. “No. Not any more than the other prisoners.” “Okay. Well I hope, that we don't get new prisoners before the festival is over. It would be a shame if you couldn't come because of some stupid criminals.” Christy put a strand of her hair behind her ear, while she looked away. “It wouldn't be such a big problem. I don't even know, if I want to go there anyway.”  
Rhett sighed quietly and placed the papers back on the table, before he looked at Christy with a concerned look on his face. “You know, you shouldn't hide yourself in this county jail all day.” Instead of looking at Rhett, Christy just arranged the papers on her desk.  
“I'm not like you, Sheriff.”  
“A tall dork?”  
“No.” Christy glanced at him quickly. “A handsome and confident man.”  
When she turned around to put the papers in the cabinets behind her desk, Rhett chuckled a little. “Well, I'm actually glad that you're not a man.” “You don't take me serious, Rhett.” He shook his head and pulled his hat from it, so he could brush through his hair.  
“I do, Christy. But you have to meet some other people than me from time to time, don't you think?” She remained quiet for a moment, before she looked at him with a serious face. “I have no other news for you, Sheriff McLaughlin. I'll inform you immediately, if anything out of the ordinary happens.” She made it clear that she wanted to end the conversation at that point. Rhett rolled his eyes a bit, before he placed the cowboy hat back on his hair and turned around to leave Christy alone.  
When he was outside the building, he started to think about the blonde woman again. Christy was a really sweet girl. She was the best employee he could have asked for, but she was also extremely shy and Rhett always felt that he needed to protect her.

 

Before long, Rhett found himself in front of the saloon. He could already hear the music outside the building and smiled a bit, before he passed the leashed horses and entered the establishment. The swing door creaked when Rhett pushed the wood out of his way. The first thing that hit him was the strong smell. The heavy scent of alcohol and tobacco mixed in the air made him almost dizzy. Rhett was sober, and had never touched a cigarette, so the odour was quite unpleasant for him. He looked around and saw many familiar faces, already drinking with their buddies. While he made his way to the bar, he glanced over to the stage where he heard a beautiful voice singing a country song. He smiled a bit more, as he recognized the dark-haired woman, who wore a cherry-red corset and a long skirt in the same color. She sang and smiled at the men in front of her, while the piano played along.  
Rhett stood next to a bar stool and listened to the woman, when someone spoke to him. “Looking at the ladies again, are we?” Rhett grinned and looked at the barkeeper, before he responded: “Watch your tongue, Chase. Or else I'll make sure that you have to pay more taxes!” “I'm pretty sure it is illegal to threaten somebody!” “Well, too bad for you that I'm in charge of the county jail. And now shut your mouth and give me something to drink already!” Chase laughed and prepared a coffee for Rhett. The tall man sat down on the bar stool and glanced at himself in the giant mirror behind the bar. He took the hat from his head and grabbed the cup that Chase handed to him. “Thank you!” He said before he put the cup to his lips to take two gulps. “So is everything as quiet as ever in our town, Sheriff?” Rhett smiled at Chase and nodded a little, whilst placing the coffee on the counter. “Of course. The last prisoner has left our town this morning. So maybe there won't be any new trouble until the festival!” Chase laughed a little and responded: “Only if you cut the alcohol short. And you won't do that, right?” Rhett giggled and shook his head lightly, before he took another sip.  
Suddenly Rhett felt a hand caressing his neck and he heard a seductive voice next to his ear. “What is so funny, darling~?” Rhett started to grin and placed his cup where it was, before he answered. “The same stuff that men always find funny. Alcohol.” When he turned his head, he saw the dark-haired woman right next to him. She smiled charmingly at him, and pulled his hand out of his neck, before she sat down beside him. “I don't get it...what would be so funny about alcohol? Most of the men become horrible wrecks when they drink .”  
“Exactly. And that is the fun part about it. But tell me, Jessie...is it okay for you to take a break just to chat with someone at the bar? Won't your fans be disappointed?” The woman named Jessie leaned closer to Rhett and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “You are not just 'someone'. First of all, you are the Sheriff. And second of all, you are the most precious person to me~” “I could arrest you for lying. Do you want me to do that?” “I'm fine with everything that will lead to me getting handcuffed by you, Rhett.”  
While Rhett shook his head amused, he could hear Chase chuckle as he handed Jessie a drink as well. “I will never understand why you two are not engaged.” He said with an honest voice and started to clean some glasses. “Maybe we are too similar? Or maybe we simply have known each other for too long. What do you think, Jessie?” Rhett looked over to her and she giggled a bit, before she responded: “I guess, it was a fault that we met so early in life. You never took my advances serious since we have grown up together!” “You deserve someone better than me and we both know that, Jessie.” Rhett answered in a quiet voice, when he looked back at his coffee. Jessie's smile softened and she took a sip, before she replied: “I know that you would be perfect for me. And whenever your mind changes...you know, where you can find me. In this bar, on that stage. Singing for you~...and some drunk guys.”  
All three of them laughed, until Rhett leaned back a bit and changed the topic of their conversation. “Anyways. I have some bad news, Jessie.” She raised an eyebrow and asked: “What is it? Something happened?” “Christy won't come to the festival.” Jessie sighed and ruffled through her hair with an irritated expression on her face. “Why?” “You know the reason.” Rhett answered, while he finished his drink. Jessie and Christy were best friends, even though they were as different as day and night. But similar to Rhett, Jessie always cared for Christy so much, that it almost seemed like they were sisters. “Argh...why doesn't she like being with other people? It's so frustrating to see her all alone in that stupid county jail all day. She rarely comes here to hear me sing, because of all the men...” “I know. I thought you could maybe change her mind.” Jessie put a finger on her lips and thought about a plan. Chase took the empty cup, that Rhett gave him and said: “Do you think it's a good idea to force her to something she doesn't want? Maybe she just likes-”  
“HA!” Jessie interrupted Chase and pointed at him with a victorious smile on her face. “That is the solution! You ask her to accompany you to the festival!” “What!?” Chase looked at her unbelieving and shook his head somewhat, before he continued: “How is THAT a solution?” “Well...I'm sure she likes you. And if you asked her, she won't say 'No'.” Rhett saw that Chase began to blush a bit, before he turned away to bring some other guests something to drink. He could clearly hear him mumble “..ridiculous.” on his way, which brought a smile to Rhett's face. Jessie giggled quietly and turned her attention back to Rhett. “And? Who is the lucky lady, that will accompany you to the festival?” “I don't need a lady, Jessie. I'm the Sheriff. I'll be there to ensure that everything is fine and not to drink and have fun.” Jessie rolled her eyes a bit and took another sip, before she replied: “You are way too serious sometimes, Rhett.”  
The Sheriff wanted to reply to her, when he suddenly heard a lot of whispering in the room, even over the quiet piano in the background. He noticed through the mirror in front of him that someone had entered the building, so he turned around.  
It was a man with dark hair, and a clean shaven face, dressed in a long black coat. The spurs on his cowboy boots made a clanking noise, while he made his way to the bar. The way he walked signalized Rhett immediately that the man was very confident and that he didn't mind the attention he was getting. He pulled his hands out of his coat when he came to a stop next to Rhett. “What can I get you to drink, stranger?” Chase asked politely and glanced sideways at Rhett. The blonde man was still examining the newcomer, but the smaller man didn't pay any attention to the Sheriff next to him. “Whiskey, please.” Rhett was astonished, when he heard the voice of the dark-haired man. He didn't know which voice he had in mind, but he was sure that it wasn't the one he had heard a second ago. It was very clear and soft. The stranger sounded incredibly young, compared to his appearance (which to Rhett meant the man had had a lot of life experience). Chase prepared the glass and placed it in front of the guy, who then placed two gold coins on the counter before he raised his head. Rhett was absorbed in thoughts, until the stranger spoke again. This time to him directly. “Am I such a threat, that the Sheriff himself won't stop observing me?” Rhett was about to answer saucily, when he met eyes with the stranger.  
Blue. Sapphire blue eyes met the gaze of the young Sheriff and rendered him speechless. He had never seen such shining eyes, and he didn't realize that he hadn't answered the newcomer. When Rhett saw a smirk on the stranger's lips, he pulled himself together and replied: “I just like to know who visits my town.”  
A chuckle.  
Rhett stood up to appear a bit more intimidating, feeling as though his staring had made him look foolish. But it didn't seem to have any effect on the stranger.  
“Don't worry. I won't stay too long.” he answered smoothly. “But the day after tomorrow is a big festival in this town! Maybe you should visit that, before you leave~” Jessie said with an obvious smirk on her face. Rhett looked at her with an irritated look in his eyes, when he heard the reply from the stranger: “That sounds really nice. Maybe I'll look into that.” Rhett rolled his eyes a bit, before he grabbed his cowboy hat. He placed it on his head and he left the bar, while he mumbled: “See you later, Chase!”  
He could hear Jessie's giggle, when he pushed the swing doors open to step out into the sunshine.


	2. Competition

“What’s wrong, Sheriff?” Eddie asked, when he stopped for a moment to clean his shaving blades again. Rhett opened his eyes and looked confused at his barber. “What do you mean?” “You don't look very happy, to be honest.” Eddie focused on his work for a moment, when he continued to shave the hair below Rhett's beard-line. “I mean...you look so stressed this morning. Has anything happened?” Rhett sighed and closed his eyes again.  
“It's the stranger.” “Stranger?” “Yeah. The new cowboy, who came into town yesterday.” “Oh, you mean the young man with the dark hair?” “Exactly, have you seen him?” Eddie grinned a bit and replied: “Tell me one person in this town, who hasn't seen him.”  
Rhett opened one eye to look at his barber. “Did he do something?” Eddie shook his head and brought Rhett a wet towel, so he could clean his face from the shaving cream, after he had finished his work. “No. At least nothing that would lead him into jail. But haven't you noticed what he did to the ladies?” Rhett rubbed the towel over his skin and looked at himself in the mirror, before he continued the conversation: “No, what did he do?” This time Eddie started to laugh and put his utensils away, before he pointed to the window.  
“Do you know how many ladies are normally staring through this window, whenever I have you here? But as you can see, no one showed up. And that's because of him!” Rhett gave the towel back and shook his head amused. “He is a ladies man, so what?” “Well...you won't believe how many men I had in here since yesterday. And most of them wanted to get rid of their beard after the new guy showed up.”  
That information left Rhett speechless for a moment. How could someone have such an impact on a small town like this in just a couple of hours? He swallowed and placed his hat on his head, before he put his coat back on. “Well, they will regret their decision as soon as the stranger leaves this town and then all the ladies will also realize how stupid he was.” Eddie grinned at Rhett and took the coins from his hand, while he answered: “Maybe he won't leave so soon. I guess, this is the first time that someone could steal all your glory in this town, Sheriff Rhett.”

 

A while later Rhett was sitting at a desk hunched over some papers. The feather in his hand made a pleasant scratching sound while he wrote. Even though he was working, he also enjoyed the silence a bit. But it didn't take long, until he heard a creaking sound from the front porch. With a little sigh, he placed the feather back into the jar of ink and stood up. He could hear papers rustling followed by a female voice, mumbling to herself. When Rhett opened his door he wasn't surprised to find Christy, who tried to balance a bunch of papers on her arms. “Ah- Sheriff Rhett, I have some-aaahhhh!” As soon as she took a step in Rhett's direction, she lost her balance and Rhett was quick enough to catch her. “Christy...why didn't you wait until I was back at the jail? I could've brought this stuff home myself!” Most of the papers were scattered on the ground and Christy was visibly embarrassed by her clumsiness, so she immediately let go of Rhett and crouched to pick up the papers. “I-I'm sorry. I know! I mean...I don't know, why I-...ah- I'm-”  
Rhett was surprised to see Christy so awkward, and so he helped her to tidy the rest of the papers, before he asked: “Is everything okay, Christy?” “Y-yes! Everything's fine!” She said with a slight blush on her cheeks, before she handed the papers over to Rhett. When both of them looked down on the chaos in Christy's hand, she pulled them back and asked: “C-can I come in and sort them for you quickly?” Rhett smiled at her and nodded. “Of course. Come in, I have the table right here so you can sort them easily.” He let her in and closed the door behind her, before he lead her to his office table. The Sheriff put the papers he worked on earlier on another shelf to give her some space and placed the ones he picked up on the table.  
“Would you like something to drink, Christy?” “N-no, I'm fine, thanks Rhett.” she replied politely. He watched her a bit, while she sorted the papers in the right order, before he asked: “Has anything happened?” She looked up with a surprised expression on her face and responded: “Well...actually...” She bit her lip and thought about the question for a moment, before she continued: “Yes. Today was a man at the county jail. He asked me if you were there and...” “...and what? What did he want?” Rhett saw that Christy blushed again and she just mumbled: “...I don't know. He didn't say what he wanted...” “And who was it? Someone I should know?” Christy handed him the papers and shrugged a bit. “I'm not sure, if-”  
She was interrupted by a knock on the door and gave Rhett quickly a questioning look, before she said: “Wait, I'll answer for you!” He nodded and went to his file cabinet to finally put away the pile of papers in his hand. He could hear Christy's voice, when she answered the door: “Hello, can I help-? Oh! It's you!”  
Rhett was curious who the visitor was, because Christy sounded quite surprised. So he closed the file cabinet and turned towards the hallway. “Christy? Who was at the door-?” But before he could finish his question, he observed the blonde girl still standing in the door frame, facing away from him. Her hands rested on her chest in a surprised fashion and her face was flushed red. Her facial expression was something between shocked and flattered.  
A man stood directly in front of her and his head seemed to be right next to her ear, as if he was whispering something to her. Rhett wasn't very happy about the scene in front of him, when he recognized the man. “Excuse me?” he tried to get their attention and when Christy heard Rhett's voice, she immediately stepped back from the man and put her head down in embarrassment. “Uh...Sheriff Rhett, this...ah...this is the man, who was at the prison today.” Rhett hated these stupid blue eyes, that looked at him now with an amused expression on the other man's face. “Yeah, I was looking for you at the county jail. I thought, that it was the place for the Sheriff to be. But maybe I should've looked in the saloon instead~?” The voice of the young man was still as soft as the day before, but Rhett couldn't stand the cheeky tone in it. “Well, it's too bad that you made your way to the county jail, before asking the people in the town, where you can find me.”  
“Ah, it's not that bad actually. I mean, I have found this pretty, little thing so I'm glad that I took a detour.” He winked at Christy, who was still blushing and she responded quickly: “I-I think, I'll go now. I-If there is anything more that I can do for you, Sheriff Rhett, just let me know!” Rhett nodded and watched her walking past the stranger, who still waited at the front porch. “You have a nice girl there~” “Cut it out, okay? So how about you tell me, who you are and what exactly do you want from me?”  
The stranger pushed his hat out of his face and continued to smile at Rhett. “I just wanted to know, if you have some wanted posters here. Or do you maybe have a list for all of the criminals, that are still causing trouble?” Rhett eyed the stranger suspiciously and asked: “Why do you want to see that?” “I don't think, that I need to share this kind of information.” “Then I don't think, that I need to share any posters or lists with you.” Suddenly the hand of the stranger clenched into a fist and his facial expression got serious. “Listen, I'm not here to make any trouble. Just give me the damn lists!” Rhett crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head slightly. “Why should I do that? You haven’t even told me who you are.”  
Rhett jumped a little when the stranger hit the door frame with his fist in anger, before he sighed deeply. “My name is Link. Please let me have a look at the list!” The sheriff stared at Link for a moment, before he smiled a little. “Maybe after the festival. So please go now, I need some sleep for tomorrow.” It seemed that Link wasn't very happy about Rhett's joke, so he raised his fist and took a step in Rhett's direction. “Stop immediately!”  
A second later Link looked a bit surprised at the gun in Rhett's hand. He had pulled it up so smoothly and fast that the stranger swallowed a bit, before he took a step back. Link smiled bitterly at Rhett and murmured: “You will regret that you didn't help my today! I promise.” With those words Link turned around and walked away from Rhett's house. The sheriff looked after the stranger, as he walked down the street. He wasn't frightened of Link, but there was something about that dark-haired man, that gave him an uneasy feeling.  
And the fact, that he wanted to see the wanted list so bad wasn't a good sign either.


	3. The Festival

The following day Rhett was standing next to the saloon and watched who was entering and leaving the building. The festival had finally begun, and it was held at the market place, which was close to the saloon. This made it easy for Chase to get a lot of money from the people wanting a drink. The sun was already about to go down, and the crowd seemed to be having a lot of fun. Rhett had to make sure that nothing went wrong, so he was always a bit anxious when it came to festivals. But as he saw the happy faces on the people around him, he tried to relax. His gaze went over to the band and his foot started to tap along to the music. The people in front of the stage, which the town had built outside over the past few days, were dancing and laughing and Rhett found himself a bit lost. He loved his job, but on evenings like this one, he would have liked to participate in the festivities like any other person.  
“Hey...why the long face, darling?” He smiled when he heard the words and felt a soft touch on his shoulder. He turned his head and looked at Jessie, who was standing next to him. She was wearing a dark-red corset with black ruffles and a black, long skirt. Her hair was pinned up and her smile managed to clear Rhett's mind from his bad thoughts. “Well...it's just a bit boring, when you're the sheriff at these festivals.” Jessie stepped in front of Rhett and took his hands. “Then, why don't you dance with me a bit?” Rhett frowned and gazed over to the other people. “I don't know, Jessie...I don't think I should do that.” She giggled a bit and stepped a little bit closer, before she asked: “Is it because you don't want to be seen with me?” He laughed a little and shook his head, before he pushed his hat out of his face.  
“No. You know that I'm never embarrassed to be seen with you.” “Is it because of your fans?” Rhett rolled his eyes and leaned against the exterior wall of the saloon and grinned. “Of course not. I haven't even seen that much ladies tonight.” Jessie raised her eyebrows and asked: “Really? No one has asked you for a dance yet?” Rhett shook his head. “No. You are the first.” “That's odd. Normally you can't even take a breath for a second on these festivals without being surrounded by girls!” Rhett shrugged his shoulders and looked back at the people on the dance floor. “Maybe they didn't see me tonight. But I'm not complaining.” “Or could it be that they found another object of interest?” Now it was Rhett's turn to raise an eyebrow, when he looked back to Jessie. “What do you mean with that?”  
Jessie let go of his hands and leaned against the wall next to Rhett instead. She looked up to him with a sly smile on her lips. “Well...you have seen the handsome stranger, right? I have the feeling that a lot of ladies from our town had switched their attention from you to him.” “You mean Link? What should be so special about him?” Rhett asked confused. “His name is Link? That's kinda cute...” “Focus, Jessie.” She giggled again and put a strand of her hair behind her ear. “His eyes are gorgeous, don't you think? And his attitude is something we have rarely seen from a stranger. He also seems to be very young.” “His attitude is the worst.” “Oh, so you don't like him?” Jessie teased with a grin. “Not really. And I can't wait for him to leave this town.” Jessie laughed a bit and looked over the crowd in front of them. “Well, at least you're in luck, because it doesn't seem like he is here tonight. Too bad for all the ladies...-oh wait...WHAT!?”  
Rhett looked down to Jessie and was confused by the surprised look on her face. “What is it, Jessie?” She raised her hand and pointed speechless to the band. Rhett followed her hand with his eyes and glanced over to the stage. But what he saw left him speechless as well.  
“Is that...Christy?...next to Link?!” Jessie asked baffled and stared at the two people, who stood next to the stage. Christy wore a light blue dress with a lot of white ruffles, and had her blonde hair pinned up. She stood close to Link, who had his left hand placed next to her head on the stage wall, where she leaned against.  
He wore a white shirt and a black tie, topped with a black vest. His jacket was also dark-colored and his hair was smoothed back. Rhett couldn't believe that Christy came to the festival, let alone that she came with him! The sheriff swallowed a bit and continued to stare at the two next to the stage. “She didn't tell me that she had a date for tonight. But they seem to enjoy each others company, don't you think?” Jessie asked with a light smile, while she watched her best friend chatting with the stranger. Rhett wanted to shake his head, but he could also see the way Christy chuckled shyly from time to time and the smile on her face, whenever she looked up at Link.  
Up into those stupid blue eyes.  
“I can't believe it...” Rhett murmured after a while and scratched his beard perplexed. “Aren't you happy for her?” Jessie asked excited and glanced up to Rhett. He shrugged a bit and replied: “Why does it have to be that guy?” “Oh god, Rhett. Come on, don't be so jealous. She looks so happy!” Rhett nodded slightly and watched how Link grabbed Christy's hand to bring her to the dance floor. The blonde girl laughed, and Rhett imagined her saying something about how she couldn't, or didn't want to dance. But it seemed that Link had his own plans and she happily complied after a moment and started to dance with him. Even though Rhett didn't like Link in the slightest, he had to agree with Jessie. The two of them looked good together. And more importantly for him, Christy looked really happy.  
Suddenly Rhett felt a hand grabbing his own. He looked at Jessie again and saw the wide smile on her face. “Let's dance a bit too!” Rhett was about to deny her offer, when she put a finger on his lips. “Shhh. Even though you are the sheriff, you are also allowed to have some fun, Rhett. So please...dance with me!” He smiled a bit, before he nodded slightly. Maybe Jessie was right.  
“And if we are near Christy, I can ask her about her date!” Jessie continued with a grin, before she led Rhett to the dance floor. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to hear Christy's explanation of why she was here with this stupid guy. It was bad enough to see them together.  
A new song started when Rhett and Jessie reached the dance floor, so he placed his hand on her hip, while she put her hand on his shoulder. They started to dance and it didn't take long, until Rhett was smiling and laughing along with Jessie. It was a lot of fun for him, especially because the music was just perfect.

 

A few songs later Rhett found himself dancing with another woman. It was a tradition to have a few songs at the festival, that would require a sudden change of dance partners. Rhett was very glad, that he wasn't a bad dancer, so he didn’t have a big problem with the changes. Even though it was still fun to move his body to the music, he missed dancing with Jessie and was about to leave the dance floor, when his partner changed again. “Sheriff Rhett? What are you doing here?” Christy asked surprised, when she found herself in front of him. He was as surprised as her, because he hadn't really paid attention which woman would be his next dance partner.  
“I was-” He began to explain himself, but he felt that someone bumped into him. Rhett turned his head to see that he was in the way of the other dancer, so he quickly took Christy's hand and began to dance to get them out of the way. “I...I was dancing with Jessie.” Rhett started again and looked down to Christy. She smiled a bit and answered: “Oh really? I haven't even seen you guys!” The sheriff swallowed a bit, but he couldn't stop himself from saying the spiteful comment, that was coming to his mind. “Maybe because you were too focused on your date.” Christy raised an eyebrow and almost tripped over her own feet, before she answered with a blush on her face. “I-I don't have a 'date'...” “But you were accompanied by Link, right? Is that why he was at the county jail today?”  
Christy shook her head and replied: “No. He wanted to ask you something. But when I told him that you weren't there....he asked me about the festival and stuff.” “But I thought, that you didn't want to go in the first place.” “Well...I changed my mind.” “You mean, HE changed your mind...!” The song had stopped so Rhett and Christy came to a halt, but remained in the same position as before. “Rhett, what is wrong with you!? I thought you would be happy, that I have finally left the county jail to come to this festival.” He looked into her eyes, while the grip on his hand tightened for a second. “I am! But...why did HE has to be the reason?! Why not someone else?”  
Christy looked shocked at Rhett and was about to say something, when she glanced behind Rhett's shoulder, where he felt a slight tap. He turned his head and it took all of his self-control not to sigh heavily, when he noticed the person standing there. “Excuse me but can I have my partner back? I think the dance is over.” The provocative look in those blue eyes were enough to make Rhett angry. But he felt that Christy let go of him, so he stepped back a bit. It was hard for him to stay calm when Link put his arm around her waist, while she stood close to him. “Let's walk around a bit to see more from the festival, shall we?” Link asked with a warm smile, as he looked down to her.  
She glanced back at Rhett and the hurtful look in her eyes made him feel sick to his stomach. Christy nodded and said: “Yeah. Let's go.”, before they turned around to leave Rhett at the edge of the dance floor all by himself. He bit his lip when he watched after them. How could it be that Link had so much influence over Christy? She and Rhett were never in a fight before but he felt, that Link would be the reason that that would soon change.  
The blonde man sighed heavily before Jessie appeared on his side again. She tucked her arm into his and smiled up to him. “Hey...don't look so defeated. The festival isn't over yet~” “But I kinda wish it was, to be honest...” Jessie started to walk and pulled Rhett gently with her. “I think you should really try to give Link a fair chance. I mean...if Christy likes him, how bad can he be?” Rhett didn't answer and followed Jessie silently instead. She pointed forward and said with a smile to him: “Let's visit Chase, okay? I think you could use a drink today!”

Rhett had never seen Chase with such an annoyed look on his face. He was known to always be nice and charming to his customers. But when Jessie and Rhett reached the bar, the sheriff could sense the low mood Chase was in with one look. “Hi. What do you want to drink?” Jessie leaned over the counter and smiled at the barkeeper. “What's up, Chase? Aren't you glad that a lot of people gave you their money tonight?” He shook his head slightly and sighed, before he answered: “It’s not that. Of course I'm happy about having many customers, but...” “Spit it out!” “...has one of you seen Christy tonight?” Jessie rolled her eyes and said: “Don't start like Rhett, please!” Chase raised his eyebrows and looked at the Sheriff, who was still standing next to Jessie while he looked through the bar. “What do you mean with 'like Rhett'?”  
After both customers received a drink from Chase, Rhett started to explain what they had seen and what had happened with Christy. “I knew that she had a date. Because when I went over to ask her out for tonight, she explained that someone had already asked her...but I didn't know that it was the new guy.” “I wish it wasn't him...” Jessie poked Rhett and said: “Stop being so negative, Rhett! He didn't do anything to you!” “He came into our town. That's one thing that he did.” Jessie shook her head and emptied her glass, before she heard someone call her name. “Guys, I'll leave you for a second, so please don't do something stupid...and quit talking about Link, okay?”  
Rhett watched Jessie walking past the people in bar, through the mirror behind Chase. “I honestly can't wait for this festival to be over...” He murmured, before he sipped at his drink. Chase nodded and replied: “I know exactly what you mean...”  
A few minutes later Rhett found himself alone at the end of the bar, while Chase served some other customers. Jessie was still with her girls. The Sheriff thought about leaving the building to get some fresh air, but his eyes fixated on the mirror again. In the reflection of the plain surface behind the alcohol bottles, he could see the blonde woman in her blue dress coming in accompanied by the dark-haired man. He watched as the woman pointed towards the bar, possibly to buy them both some drinks, while the man agreed with a nod. Rhett closed his eyes when they split and drank the rest from his drink. He didn't need to watch them. He didn't care about them. As long as Christy was happy...that was all that counted...right?  
When he opened his eyes again, he saw the back of the black-haired man. He was sitting on the table behind Rhett and was chatting with some other men. The sheriff was upset that he hadn’t left the bar before, but he’d feel stupid to do it now, since he had to walk past Link. So he kept his eyes glued to his empty glass and waited for Jessie's return, while he overheard the conversation behind him.  
“Damn boy...ya sure are lucky, aren't ya?” “Why do you think that?” “Well...ya got the pretty blonde girl. The one from the jail, right? Everyone's after her.” “Really? She told me, that she isn't very popular with men...” “That's because she doesn’t let any male near her! And that's why ya lucky, boy! So don't let this evening go to waste, if ya know what I mean, hehe...”  
Rhett felt sick to his stomach the longer he listened to both men. He hated the fact that they talked about Christy in that way. His fingers clutched the glass strongly and he decided to just ignore them, when he heard the next sentence.  
“Don't worry. That was not my plan after all~ I know how to handle pretty girls. She isn't my first...and she definitely won't be my last-” Link wasn't able to say anything more, because the next thing he felt was a fist in his face, after someone had spun him around. A loud crash echoed through the room, when the wooded table broke under the weight of the dark-haired man, who fell onto it. “SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” Rhett yelled at Link, before he raised his fist again to hit him a second time. Link tried to defend himself by raising his arms in front of his face, while Rhett lunged at him without stopping his fists. “How can you speak about her like that, you filthy rat!?!” “Stop it!! I haven't done anything, you moron!” “You have! And you will pay for it!!” “RHETT!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? STOP IT!!!” The sheriff could hear Christy's voice screaming at him, but he didn't care. All that mattered was that this guy would finally learn his lesson.  
But right after Rhett had finished this thought, he was pulled back by a couple of hands, which he couldn't escape. “Let me GO!!” “Boy! Calm down, will ya?!” “But this guy-!” Rhett still fought against the hands that held him back, when he saw the familiar blue dress coming into frame. Christy immediately knelt down next to Link and helped him to sit up. His lip was split, and his hair was a total mess. The blonde woman made sure that he was okay and gave him a handkerchief to clean up the blood from the corner of his lip. Rhett stared angrily at the two and tried to calm himself down a bit, as Christy stood up to face him. “What's gotten into you, Rhett!? Why did you hurt him?” “He started it!! You should have heard what he said about you, Christy!” “I don't think that he would say anything that would justify you beating him up!”  
“Why do you defend this guy!? Just because he fluttered his eyes at you, he brought you over to his side also!? You're gonna make a mistake, if you continue hanging out with him!”  
Rhett's head yanked to the side and he felt an unpleasant heat radiating from his cheek. Christy looked up at him with tears in her eyes, her hand still raised in anger. “Why are you like this, Rhett? Why...why can't you just be happy for me!?” While Rhett touched the skin where Christy had slapped him, he saw her turning around and rushing out of the building. Before he could follow her, Link gave him a quick but winning smile, which went unnoticed by everyone else in the room, and ran after her.

 

It was late at night when Rhett looked up to the ceiling. He had been laying in his bed for hours now, but he couldn't find any sleep. The whole time he was thinking about two people.  
Christy and Link.  
Link and Christy.  
He wasn't jealous of Link. He never had any romantic feelings towards Christy. She was always just a friend. Almost a sister to him. But seeing her with this guy....  
Rhett exhaled silently and closed his eyes for a moment. The second he had seen this guy, he had felt that something was up with him. That he would mean trouble. But he didn't think that the trouble would involve Christy.  
He scratched his beard, before his fingertips rested on the place, where Christy had hit him. The pain from her hand had decreased very quickly, but it was the pain in his chest that he got from the disappointed look on her face, that wouldn't go away.  
He felt terrible.  
After a while, the sheriff was about to doze off, when he heard some strange noises. He opened his eyes again to listen more carefully and was surprised as he located the noises from inside his own house. He held his breath for a split second to figure out what the source of the sound was.  
Steps.  
Footsteps.  
Someone was walking through his house!  
Rhett was wide awake and tried to get out of his bed as quietly as possible. He grabbed his dressing gown and put it on, before also grabbing his gun from the bedside table. With wary steps, he left his bedroom and made his way to the stairs. Now he could hear some other noises even clearer. Someone was rustling through paper. Rhett held the revolver close to his chest, prepared to fire as soon as it was necessary. The last step made an unpleasant squeaking sound and Rhett immediately held his breath.  
The rustling had stopped and he could hear silent footsteps, coming in his direction. Without any more hesitation he turned around the corner into his office and held up his gun, before he yelled: “Stop right there!” However he was surprised to see that a gun was also pointed at him, while the person remained silent. Rhett couldn't recognize the person in front of him, due to the lack of light in the room. The only source of light was the moon, that shone brightly through his office windows, but it only managed to illuminate the hand with the gun from his opponent.  
“What are you doing in my house!?” Rhett asked and tried to focus on the shadowy person. Suddenly the intruder threw a bunch of papers in Rhett's direction, which he or she had been holding since Rhett had walked downstairs. Caught off-guard, Rhett didn't react quickly enough, so the intruder was able to duck behind his desk, before the sheriff shot in his direction.  
“Come forward, or I'll kill you. I'm not joking!” Rhett explained again and took a step towards the desk. When he had almost reached the desk, the burglar jumped out from behind it and tackled Rhett. Both of them fell to the ground and Rhett lost his revolver during his fall. The intruder tried to strangle him, but Rhett was too agile to let that happen. He pulled the hands away from his neck and managed to roll the other person on his back. While Rhett straddled the intruder and tried to get a hold of his hands again, he could finally get a glance at his face, now that they both managed to roll into the moonlight.  
Sapphire blue eyes.  
For a moment Rhett was too shocked to realize that his intruder was indeed Link. But Link took advantage of that and grabbed the revolver from the floor in the blink of an eye. Rhett tried to get a hold of the other man’s hands again, but Link was too fast for him and sat himself up a bit, while he raised the revolver. The next thing Rhett felt was a dull pain in the side of his head, where the revolver butt had hit him.  
Everything went dark and the sheriff lost his consciousness, while his body fell half onto the ground and half onto Link.


	4. Liar

“Wake up, Rhett! Please!” Rhett blinked a few times, before he was able to open his eyes slowly. His vision was blurry but after a few seconds he saw a face. Jessie's face. “J-jessie...? What-?” “Oh thank god, you're awake! What happened to you? I came here and the door was wide open! And your office is a mess...!” The sheriff tried to sit up straight, but when he moved his head he felt a stinging pain. “Ouch!” “Oh my god, are you bleeding, Rhett?!” “No…” he mumbled, after he had managed to locate the wound on his head with his fingers. “...I was, but I think it stopped...but my head hurts still, gosh!”  
Rhett could feel hands on his back and he assumed, that Jessie tried to support him. “What are you doing here anyway, Jessie? I can’t remember bringing you home, yesterday…” “There is no time for jokes, Rhett!” She answered with a serious look on her face, while she helped Rhett to stand up. “I’m here because we had an act of housebreaking in town and I wanted-” “DAMMIT! That’s right! Where is he!?”  
Suddenly Rhett had forgotten about his pain and looked around the room hectically to find any evidence of his night visitor. “Where is who?” Jessie asked confused. “Link! That bastard was here last night and he was the one, who knocked me down!” “What are you talking about, Rhett…?” “It’s true!” He grabbed some of the papers that were still scattered on the floor. “He searched for something….but what…?” While Rhett was lost in his own thoughts, Jessie went over to him and grabbed him by his shoulders to spin him around. “Rhett! This is serious! Can you please focus for a minute?” The sheriff looked confused at the girl and responded: “What is it, Jessie? I’m in a hurry, I need to find-” “Rhett, someone was murdered yesterday! They robbed and killed Morgan!” In an instant Rhett was wide-eyed and he dropped the papers, which fell to the floor with a little rustling noise. “What….?”

 

A while later the sheriff arrived at the crime scene. He had dressed himself while Jessie had told him everything that she knew about what had happened. A few people had already gathered in front of the house, but Christy stood in the door frame, trying to block their view. The crowd parted when Rhett arrived, and he didn’t hesitate to walk past Christy into the house. “It’s horrible, Sheriff. The thief didn’t leave him a single penny and also shot him down.” the blonde woman explained, while the sheriff looked at the corpse on the floor. The blood around it had already dried and Rhett swallowed a bit, before he started speaking. “How could he do that…?” “What do you mean? What did Morgan do?” Christy asked confused and looked at Jessie, who had followed Rhett inside.  
“I didn’t mean Morgan. I meant the thief that wandered around yesterday. Link.”  
“Rhett stop it!” Christy said in a loud voice.  
“Stop what?”  
“Dragging Link into this! Can’t you see that this is serious? Someone died!”  
“I know that! And I also know, that it was the black-haired bastard who did it!”  
“You have no evidence to proof that, do you?”  
“I saw him!”  
Christy looked at Rhett with wide eyes. “You...witnessed the murder…?”  
Rhett crossed his arms in front of his chest and answered: “No! Of course not! If I had been here, I would’ve prevented it...but I saw him in my house! He broke in last night, maybe after dealing with Morgan.” Christy shook his head slowly and lowered her gaze. “Rhett, just stop it already! This is ridiculous! It wasn’t Link!” “It was Link! I saw him! Why are you protecting this damn thief!?”  
“Because he stayed at my place during the night! So it was not him!” Rhett opened his mouth slowly and shook his head in disbelief. “This...is a joke, right? You did not let this...this man into your house, did you!?”  
Christy blushed and kept her head down, while she responded: “Yes I did, Rhett. And I think I’m old enough to decide for myself which men is allowed to stay at my house,...right?” Jessie placed her hand on Christy’s shoulder, before Rhett was able to say another word, and asked her friend: “Is that true, Christy? You’re not saying this because you want to protect Link, do you?” Christy looked at Jessie and shook her head a bit. “No, Jessie. I’m being honest. He stayed at my place after he brought me home.” “And where is he now? Why can’t he speak for himself?” Rhett asked and gave Christy a frosty stare.  
“He...he left…” she answered with a faltering voice. “Ohhhh, what a coincidence!” “Rhett! Don’t be so mean!...But don’t you know his destination?” Jessie asked the blonde girl and gave her a worried look. “No. He was with me until I fell asleep. But when I woke up...I was alone. He didn’t even leave a note or anything.” The girl bit her lip and tried to hold back her tears, while Rhett replied in a stern voice: “So you can’t even be sure that he was with you the whole night? And you seriously want me to leave him out of this, when I saw him last night in my house!? He was there and he knocked me unconscious, Christy!” “But he would never…!”  
“Yes, he WOULD and he DID! You don’t even know this guy, Christy! Just because he whispered a few nice words into your ear, you don’t need to protect him-”  
Suddenly Christy took a step forward and had a serious look on her face, while tears formed in the corner of her eye. “You are the one who doesn’t know Link! So don’t treat him like a culprit just because you can’t deal with the fact, that he was interested in me! I don’t even believe you, that he was in your house. You just want to get him in jail for something that he didn’t do!”  
“Are you calling me a liar!?” Rhett asked incredulous. “Yes, I do! Because you have no evidence to proof that it was Link, who did this!” Rhett clenched his fists and yelled at Christy: “Okay, you know what? I’m going to find this bastard, drag him here and then you will see that it was him!” After those words, Rhett stormed out of the building and didn’t even care that he bumped into some people on his way through the crowd. He was so mad that this stupid guy had ruined everything for him in just a couple of hours. 

 

Later that day Rhett heard a knock on his front door and shouted “It’s open, come in!”, while he continued to stuff some maps in his saddlebag. “Rhett…? Where are you?” He raised his head and beckoned Jessie, who stood in the hallway, to come into his office. “Hi Jessie. What are you doing here again? I hope it’s not another murder case…”  
She shook her head and folded her arms. “No, not this time. But what are you doing?” “I could ask you the same question. Why aren’t you singing today? Isn’t Chase missing his star?” Jessie sighed and answered: “I told him what had happened and that I don’t feel like performing today. And I was also worried about you.”  
Rhett walked around the desk where he had put down the saddlebag and grabbed a revolver, that was lying on the shelf behind the table. He examined the revolver drum and pulled some ammo out of the back pocket of his pants. While he reloaded the gun, he replied to Jessie: “You don’t need to worry about me. Everything’s fine~” “Then what are you doing there…?” Jessie asked curiously and kept an eye on what Rhett was doing. With a click the revolver was put together again and Rhett secured it, before he placed it in his belt. “I’m preparing myself. I mean, what does it look like?” He turned around to see a surprised look on Jessie’s face.  
“P-preparing for what? I mean...You weren’t actually serious about-?” “Yes, I was. I’m gonna search for Link and I will bring him back to serve justice!” “That is insane, Rhett!” Jessie said and took a step forward, before she placed her hand on his arm. “You didn’t leave this town for the past...five years or so! You don’t even know what lies out there!” Rhett grinned at her and put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. And how much could’ve changed during those years?” “But you don’t even know where he went! He could be anywhere!” “I already have an idea of where he went. You just need to think like a thief, Jessie.”  
Jessie raised her eyebrow in confusion and dropped her arm, while she asked: “What do you mean by that?” Rhett pointed to a map that was hanging on the other side of the wall, which showed the town and the area around it.  
“If you did something bad...what would you do, if you don’t want to get caught?”  
“I would hide.”  
“But what if everyone knows you so well, that you can’t hide?”  
“Then I would flee and go to another town.”  
“And what would you do, if your followers have faster horses than you?”  
“I would try to find a way to be even faster and-...OH!”  
Jessie looked back to Rhett, when a light dawned on her. “You mean, he’s taking the train?” Rhett nodded and smiled slightly. “The towns that are close to ours would be either Willow Springs or Brickhaven. But Brickhaven is the only town around here with a train station. So I bet he is trying to get there.” “And if you’re prediction is wrong?” “Then I’m wasting some time outside of this town and he will be gone forever. But I’m willing to take that risk.”  
Jessie lowered her head for a moment, before she looked up at Rhett again with a sad smile on her face. “I hope you know, what you are doing, Rhett.” He swallowed a bit before he hugged her tightly and whispered into her ear: “Please don’t worry about me, Jessie. It’s important for me to do this…!”

 

It was late afternoon when the sheriff sat on his horse and checked his saddlebags one last time. His travel companion was a black mustang named Rey, who was currently trying to nibble on Jessie’s hair. She raised her hand to push the horse’s head away gently, while she watched Rhett. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to start your journey this late? The sun will set in a couple of hours, maybe you should wait until morning…” “I can’t give him too much time or I will never catch him, Jessie.” “But you won’t come very far, if the sun goes down.” “I can just follow the Cape Fear River. It will lead me to Brickhaven.”  
Jessie smiled a bit and replied in a low voice: “I know...I was just trying to keep you here in town.” The sheriff smiled down at her and was about to answer, when he saw someone running towards him.  
He opened his mouth in surprise and watched Christy coming closer. She held the hem of her dress in one hand so she wouldn’t trip over it and dropped it, when she stopped in front of the horse. She breathed heavily and tried to collect herself, before she raised her head to look at Rhett. “You...you’re really...leaving?” Rhett swallowed a bit and averted his gaze. “...yes.” “But you can’t just leave! I mean...you are the sheriff!” “Don’t worry, Christy. He spoke with the mayor. Jason will take over his office while he is gone.” Jessie butted in and placed a hand on her arm. Christy ignored Jessie and kept her eyes on the blonde man in front of her. “But sheriff, you can’t-” “Listen Christy…” Rhett exhaled loudly and looked back to her. “I don’t want to argue with you before I leave. So...can you just step back and let me go…?”  
The blonde girl bit her lip and reached her hand out to put it on top of his hand. Rhett noticed that her hand was shaking, while she started to speak again: “...I don’t...I don’t want you to-...I mean...please be safe, Rhett…” Her voice was so quiet, that he almost didn’t catch it. He had never seen Christy with such a worried look on her face and it broke his heart. “I will. Don’t worry.” Christy nodded a bit and pulled her hand back, while Jessie gave her an encouraging side-hug. Rhett grabbed the reins a bit tighter and was about to move Rey around to finally start riding, when Christy spoke again:  
“And...Rhett…? I know that...this request is not easy for you to fulfill, but….can you...can you try to be as gentle as possible to Link? He really...is not a bad guy.” Rhett’s facial features hardened when he heard the words, but his voice remained calm when he answered: “I will decide that when I find him.” After his answer he turned around and spurred his horse to finally leave the town.  
He didn’t look back, because he didn’t want to see the two women, that he would miss the most during his journey.


	5. The Journey

The sheriff made his way into the wilderness. He was glad that the weather conditions were so good that he managed to travel really far in a couple of hours. Rhett kinda enjoyed this trip, even though the reason for it made him still a bit mad. But feeling the wind and dust in his face, while watching the sunset was very astonishing. At one point he could see a large number of trees in the distance and one look at his map confirmed his thought. It was the Raven Rock forest. The sheriff remembered visiting the forest with his father when he was still a child. He loved the Cape Fear River that ran between the trees and his father had even tried to show him how to catch some fish back then.  
But Rhett hadn’t been to this forest for years, mostly because he had no reason to do so, but also because people were trying to avoid places like this these days. The reason was simple: They feared the natives.  
The natives was the name for the people with red skin, that didn’t live the same way as the cowboys in this country. They lived in large groups, rode horses and were extremely skilled when it came to archery. Rhett had heard stories about them attacking people in forests and even those who had traveled through the mountains. According to their experiences Rhett wasn’t too sure which was worse: Being attacked by a native, or being robbed by a criminal. Some said that they killed humans for fun, and others said it was because the white men had stolen their land. But he wasn’t scared in any way. He knew that he was very skilled with his revolver and he was smart enough to shoot someone dead without any hesitation, before that person could take his own life.  
Rhett just hoped that there weren’t any natives in the forest, because they could ruin his plan to bring Link back. He didn’t care particularly about that man’s safety, but it would be easier to prove his guilt, if he was still alive. 

 

It was a foggy morning when the sheriff traversed the forest. He couldn’t suppress a yawn or two, because he hadn’t rested enough the night before. He wanted to catch Link as quickly as possible, so he had decided to stop for as little time as necessary. While the trees went by Rhett, he would sometimes hear rustling in the distance. When he stopped for the first time to listen to the sounds more clearly, he saw a little rabbit running past him. Rhett was sure that he just wasn’t used to so many noises around him, so he decided to ignore them, whenever he would hear them again.  
Suddenly Rey slowed down and his ears twitched nervously, while he moved his head to the side. Rhett drew in the reins and moved his feet so that Rey sped up a bit. He didn’t want to lose precious time just because his horse didn’t feel like moving. Rhett leaned down to pet Rey a bit, when he felt something flying past his face suddenly. He raised his head and searched behind him to see what had almost hit him. But when he turned around again he noticed another thing coming right at him, so he tried to move out of the way quickly. The sheriff felt a dull pain in his left shoulder and realised that an arrow had hit him, even though he had ducked. It was in that moment that he heard the hasty footsteps behind the trees, so he didn’t waste any more time and spurred his horse to flee from the attackers.  
Now he knew why Rey didn’t want to go down that path, although he hadn’t imagined to be ambushed by a group of natives. The pain in his shoulder grew stronger but he didn’t want to get the arrow out, as long as he wasn’t sure if they were safe or not. All of a sudden a native jumped down from a tree in front of the horse, which caused Rey to raise his front legs in fear.  
Rhett tried to hold onto his horse but he didn’t react quick enough so he fell from the horseback and landed hard on the ground. The native shouted out into the woods to call his companions, while he raised a spear. The man came towards him, while the sheriff fumbled for his gun. The red-skinned man stopped next to the horse and cut the saddlebag off with the tip of his spear. The sheriff gave it a go, drew his revolver and aimed at the native’s head. A gunshot later the body laid motionless on the ground and Rhett breathed heavily due to the adrenaline and the pain in his body.  
But he hadn’t much time to collect himself, because he could hear more footsteps coming closer. He was half lying, half kneeling on the ground while he tried to observe every direction, so he wouldn’t be surprised again. An arrow flew towards him but he managed to duck correctly this time and he fired at the attacker in response. At the same time he was hit with another arrow, this time in his leg, which made him cry out in pain. In the next moment he saw five natives coming out from behind trees and bushes. Rhett saw that one of them grabbed the saddlebag from his dead friend, but the others had their spears raised and came slowly closer. The blonde man didn’t know which he should shoot first, but he decided on the one man with the bow and arrow. He raised his gun again to aim however seeing the anger in the eyes of his attackers petrified Rhett. There was no way he could kill all of them, before they would attack him.  
While he thought about when he should start shooting, he heard a gunshot and a cry of pain coming from the trees. The other men looked confused around and Rhett took the chance to aim at the archer to shoot him down. His friends didn't seem happy about that and started to run towards Rhett, who tried to get up to avoid the attacks.  
But he didn’t get very far because he lost his balance and fell, when he dodged the sharp end of the spear. The sheriff turned around quickly and shot the man in front of him, who fell onto the ground. A movement in the corner of his eye got Rhett’s attention a moment later and he realized with fright that a native was about to stab him. He tried to raise his gun in time but all of a sudden he heard a gunshot, and saw that the native sink to the ground.  
The remaining two natives panicked and took the one saddlebag with them as a trophy, while they fled from the scene.  
Rhett looked after them for a moment before he turned his head back to the dead native, who hadn’t been killed by Rhett’s revolver. He tried to look around again to find the person responsible, but the wound in his shoulder started to hurt more, so he squinted his eyes in pain.  
“Well...look who is here…” a voice said in a calm tone and Rhett opened his eyes again. He was shocked to see the sapphire blue eyes looking down at him, amused. “Not you…” Rhett murmured and swallowed a bit, before the grip on his gun tighten a bit.  
“Hey..is that a proper way to say thank you to your helper in need?” The dark-haired guy asked while he moved over to Rhett’s horse. “...I won’t thank a murderer for anything.” Rhett tried to stand up again and ignored the pain in his leg, when he aimed with his gun at Link. The other man was still looking at the horse and petted it a bit, before he replied: “If I were you, I wouldn’t shoot me. They can come back any time...so maybe you need my help.” “No one needs your help, you filthy thief!” Rhett exclaimed and pulled the trigger.  
A quiet clicking sound caught their ears. Rhett looked disbelieving at his gun and pulled the trigger again. Another click. He tried to pull it a couple more times, but all that he heard was the same clicking sound. Link grinned at him while he left the horse alone to walk towards Rhett. “Didn’t you count your bullets properly? You fired two at the last guy. That’s why you don’t have any left for me.” The shorter man stopped in front of Rhett and gave him a once-over. “You look pretty bad to me. Are you sure that you don’t want to thank me?” Rhett shook his head and looked at Link with a stern look. “Never.”  
“Okay…if that is your final answer…” Link murmured, before he raised his revolver and pointed at Rhett. “Goodnight, sheriff.” Rhett stared into the sapphire blue eyes and raised his eyebrow in confusion, when Link suddenly flipped his gun over and raised his arm. Before Rhett knew what happened, he felt the same pain in his head that he had felt two nights ago. The force of the revolver butt was too much for Rhett, who was still fighting with his other injuries.  
The sheriff tried to get a grip of Link’s arm, until he lost consciousness and fell to the ground again.


	6. Untie me

Rhett blinked a few times before he managed to keep his eyes open. His vision was a bit blurry but it didn’t take long until he saw dirt and rocks underneath him.  
Yet everything was moving. It made Rhett dizzy so he closed his eyes again. He could feel his body moving and his chest was pressed into something warm. The sheriff opened his eyes again and turned his head a bit. He could see the black fur that he recognized as the fur from his own horse. It took him another moment to figure out that he was laying on top of Rey’s back. He tried to move a bit, when he realized, that his hands were tied together. He looked down at them and inspected the big rope, before he murmured: “What the-...?”  
“Shh! Don’t say anything.” Rhett tried to move his head to look up to the voice above him. Someone sat to his right in the saddle of the horse. He had recognized the voice so he wasn’t too surprised to see Link sitting straight up, but he was still confused. “What the hell is going-?”  
“I said Shh! They could still be near, so be quiet!” Link whispered again and Rhett saw that he was looking around a bit, while he guided Rey through the forest. Rhett sighed a bit and lowered his head, while he waited patiently until he was allowed to speak again.  


 

Rhett felt as if they had already gone through half of the forest, when Link suddenly exhaled loudly and said: “This looks like a good place to stop. Come on, Black Beauty…” Rhett rolled his eyes and replied: “His name is Rey.” “Whatever. I don’t care what his name is as long as he walks…” The sheriff could feel that Rey came to halt and he turned his head to the right, to see what was in front of the horse. It looked like a little pond. But while Rhett was still trying to figure out what the purpose of this stop was, he felt that two arms grabbed his body to pull him from the horse.  
He landed hard on the ground, when Link let go of him. The pain in his shoulder and his leg returned and made him angry again. He watched as Link walked over to him while he pulled out a knife. “Okay, listen. While I was riding us through this forest I got a really nice idea. Wanna hear it?” “...why didn’t you kill me?” Link grinned at him. “You still haven’t figured out how to deal with the natives, do you? If I had fired another gunshot, we would’ve been surrounded by those bastards.” “And why did you bring me with you? You could’ve just left me there.”  
Link seemed to be stressed out when he answered again: “Because I’m not an asshole. Now keep quiet, will ya? This is my plan: I will treat your wounds and in return you will guide us out of this forest and into the next town. What do you think?”  
“Why should I help you?”  
“Because I helped you, god dammit! I thought that a sheriff is there to help people!”  
“People yes. Criminals no.”  
The black-haired guy looked at him with narrow eyes and exhaled loudly, before he began talking again: “I’m not gonna ask you again. Do we have a deal or not?”  
Rhett thought about the offer for a moment. He was very displeased with the thought of helping a criminal in any way. But he also knew that he wasn’t able to take care of his injuries alone. And he wanted to get Link to a town anyway to arrest him, so maybe the idea wasn’t so bad. The blonde man nodded slightly and replied: “Okay. We have a deal. Now untie me!”  
“Ha, forget it.” Link said and turned around, while he put away his knife. “What!? Hey! You wanted to make a deal, don’t ya?!” “Yeah. But I won’t untie you until I’m done with your wounds. Who knows how much the process will hurt you? I don’t want to get punched in the face again.”  
Rhett exhaled loudly and let his head sink to the ground again. He could hear Link rustling through a bag and assumed, that it was filled with Link’s only possessions. Rhett tried to think about why that man decided to live a life out of a bag instead of living in a house in some town. When he saw Link coming back to him, he noticed the bandages in his hands. It seemed that he was at least prepared for his life in the wilderness.

 

The next minutes were very painful for Rhett, and Link’s decision not to untie him seemed to have been a good one. Link tried to be very careful as he removed the arrow pieces from his shoulder and his leg, but it still made Rhett squirm in pain. And it got even worse, when Link cleaned the wounds with alcohol before he bandaged them. The sheriff tried to calm his breathing, and he could feel that Link untied him as the procedure was done. “You...didn’t need to be so rough…” Rhett murmured, even though he knew that Link had tried to be careful.  
The other man just rolled his eyes and grabbed his stuff, before he answered: “Well, I didn’t think that a sheriff would be such a pussy.” Rhett shook his head and stood up cautiously. Link put the remaining bandages and the healing ointment into the bag and asked: “So. Which way do we need to go now? I’m really hungry, so I want to get into a town quickly!”  
“...there is a map in one of the saddlebags.” Rhett answered and walked carefully over to the pond. He wanted to wash his face and hands, but when he had kneeled down he heard Link say: “There is no map. Where do you have it?”  
The blonde man sighed and turned his head a bit to look at the man next to the horse. “It is in there, I know it. Just search for it. It’s not that difficult…” “...nope. There is no map, I swear. But does it matter? I mean, we can go just by your orientation.”  
Rhett was about to bathe his face but turned around again with an angry look towards Link. Kneeling down was a bit painful for him and all these stupid questions were getting on his nerves. “Is this some kind of joke?” He asked before he got up and walked over to Link. The dark haired man held up his hands in defense and shook his head. “No. Why should I make a joke about this?” Rhett decided not to answer that question and looked through the saddlebag himself. “...what-?....where…?”  
“See? I told you it is not there!” “It can’t be!! I had a map with-”  
Suddenly it dawned upon him.  
The other saddlebag was stolen by the two natives. He hadn’t thought about it in that moment, but now he figured that the map must’ve been in that bag. “Dammit...it got stolen!” Rhett raked his fingers through his hair and looked shocked to the ground. “Soooo…? Where is the problem?” “That I don’t know the way without the map, you stupid!” “WHAT!?”  
Link looked disbelieving at Rhett and shook his head a bit, before he continued: “How can you NOT know the way? You are the sheriff from this region, right?” “I’m the sheriff from Buies Creek and not from this goddamn forest!” Link clenched his fists and started to walk around a bit. “This can’t be true…! I thought you could get us out of here! And now we’re both stuck! Great!” “Well, you came unprepared into this forest to begin with…” “Hey, at least I know how to kill some stupid natives.” “Again, I was never asking for your help, you criminal!”  
“Could you stop saying that? I thought we had a deal!” “Yeah, but the deal didn’t include which name I’m giving you. And I will continue to call you a criminal and a murderer.” “You killed the freaking natives, too! So STOP calling me a goddamn murderer!” Link turned to Rhett and walked up to him with a stern look on his face. “I’m not talking about the natives, asshole! I’m talking about Morgan! You killed an innocent man!” Without a warning Link grabbed Rhett’s collar and stared angrily at him.  
“Stop saying that!”  
“No!”  
“You scumbag!”  
Rey turned his head a bit and watched the two men who had started a fight, until he trotted over to the pond to drink a bit water. Rhett and Link scuffled and it didn’t take long before they both hit the ground. They rolled around in the dirt and pulled on each other’s clothes, while they dealt out one or two blows. Rhett found himself on top of Link when he straddled him, which immediately took him back to the robbery in his house.  
But this time he didn’t want to lose the fight so he raised his fist and was about to punch Link again. Suddenly a caustic pain rushed through his shoulder and down his spine, which made him squirm in pain. He closed his eyes and awaited the next punch from Link, while he grabbed his wound with his right hand after he had lowered his left fist.  
It took him a couple of seconds to realize that Link wasn’t going to hit him, so he opened his eyes again to stare questioningly at him. Rhett could see a steady gaze in the other man’s eyes and watched him as he wiped away some blood on his renewed busted lip.  
“Are we done now?” The blonde man raised his eyebrows in question and looked down at Link when he heard that question. “What?”  
Link sighed and brushed some hair out of his face, before he replied: “I don’t want to fight someone who is injured. But if you keep saying these things, I get really pissed off, okay? So it would be nice if you could shut your mouth until we made it out of this forest.”  
Rhett swallowed a bit and thought about Link’s reply, before he nodded a little. “Okay. I’ll try to be as nice as possible...to someone like you.” Link shook his head with a grin and waited for Rhett to get up so he could also stand up. The tall man saw that Link grabbed his cowboy hat from the ground and asked: “Hey, do you know where my hat is?”  
“Sure. I tied it to the harness of your little pony…”


	7. Charles Lincoln Neal

Rhett slowly opened his eyes. Green leaves hung high above him and he tried to locate where he was. As he turned his head a bit he saw more of the forest and slowly remembered what had happened.  
He had left Buies Creek.  
He was attacked by natives.  
Link had helped him and they made a deal.  
His body felt kinda stiff when he sat upright carefully. He brushed with his fingers through his hair as he looked around a bit more. Everything looked peaceful and his eyes rested on the fireplace, which they had made the evening before. Rhett wondered why it wasn’t lit anymore before he realized something else.  
Everything was gone.  
Both of the men had decided to rest at this glad yesterday, so they had made a little camp with their stuff. But the only thing remaining was Rhett with his blanket and the unlit fireplace. Even Rey was gone. “This asshole!!!” Rhett exclaimed angrily and stood up to look around more. Why had he been so stupid and had trusted the other man? Of course a criminal would just wait for the best chance to rob him! Rhett punched a tree with his right hand and leaned his forehead against it afterwards. “This fucking liar…!”  
“Hey, you’re awake already?” The sheriff turned around with an unbelieving look on his face. Link walked onto the glad, holding Rey’s reins in one hand and a bit more firewood in the other. The horse carried all of their possessions which Rhett had searched for just a moment ago. “Wh...what are you-…? I mean...where did you go!?” Link let go of the reins and Rey came to a halt, while the black-haired man walked to the fireplace. “I was searching for firewood. And while I was at it I took the horse with me so he could eat some grass.” “B-but why did you leave with all of our stuff?”  
The smaller man knelt down next to the burned wood and placed the new one on top of it. He then tried to inflame it, while he answered: “Because I like tidiness. So I put away anything before I left.” Rhett stared down at the man before he brushed with his finger through his hair. He didn’t like the fact that he had accused Link of something that he didn’t do. But it was still weird for him that this criminal was sometimes so...nice?

 

It didn’t take long for the fire to burn briskly and Rhett watched Link as he prepared a pot of coffee. The long fingers of the black-haired man were so swift with every movement, that Rhett asked the question: “Do you make coffee everyday for yourself?” Link glanced at him and then looked back at the pot, before he answered: “Yes. I can’t begin my morning without a cup of coffee. I become very grumpy, when I have to go without it.”  
Rhett smirked a bit but remained silent as he continued to watch him. “Would you like some coffee?” Link offered, after he had poured himself some into a cup. The blonde man blinked in confusion and said: “Well...I don’t want drink your precious coffee if you need it.”  
Link smiled and put out his hand. “I made enough for both of us. Just in case you wanted some.” Rhett swallowed a bit and stood up to bring Link the cup from his bag. He didn’t think that the thief would be so caring.  
After the two men had drank their coffee they continued their journey. Rhett had told Link that they should try to find the Cape Fear River since it would lead them out of the woods eventually. Link agreed with the idea because he also wanted to catch some fish to eat them for dinner. 

 

Before long, Rhett was sitting on a giant rock next to the streaming water and watched as Link waddled through it. He had turned his sleeves and his pant legs up, so they wouldn’t get wet. His blue eyes searched every corner of the river while his hands twitched a little whenever he saw a movement. He grabbed a few times in the water but always without success.  
The blonde man was about to say that he should just give it up, when Link reached again into the knee-deep water. This time his hands didn’t come up so quickly and it looked like he was fighting against something. Rhett was wide-eyed when the black-haired man hold a fidgeting fish up in the air. He had a triumphant grin on his face as he looked over to Rhett.  
The sheriff shook his head in disbelieve and watched how Link tossed the fish on land. The tall man walked over to the fish and grabbed it, before he slapped the head with the handle of a knife. The fish immediately stopped moving and Rhett looked up to Link. The other man was trying to catch another fish, but when he reached out into the water he slipped and fell. Rhett couldn’t help himself and burst into a laughter when he saw the smaller man sitting dumbfounded in the water. When Link heard Rhett’s laughter, he looked over to him and also started to laugh.

 

Rhett stood next to Rey and combed him as Link was building the fireplace. The sheriff glanced at the other man and saw that he was about to cut the fish. “Do you need help?” The dark-haired man looked up and asked: “Do you know how to gut it?” Rhett nodded. “Yes. I’m an average cook, I would say.” Link smiled a bit and held the fish and the knife out to Rhett. The tall man walked over and he gave Link the comb, while he took the knife and the animal. He placed himself onto the stone on which Link had sat before and started to cut the fish open.  
He looked up again when he heard soft words coming from the other man. Link was combing Rey and was also talking to the horse, which surprised Rhett. He observed Link a bit and found himself lost in thoughts.  
Maybe Christy was right.  
Maybe...he was a decent guy. The young woman hadn’t fallen for him, if he wasn’t a good man...right? Rhett gave the cowboy a once-over and was startled when he saw that Link had noticed his glimpse. He turned his attention back to the fish and continued to cut it, but he could’ve sworn that the other man was now watching him.

 

The smell of roasted fish was still in the air as Rhett finished his meal. He was about to clean up his fingers, when he noticed that Link’s second fish wasn’t eaten all the way. “Do you finish that?” Link looked down at his plate and shook his head, before he asked: “Do you want to eat the rest?” Rhett nodded and took the plate from Link’s hand.  
“I don’t like to waste food.” Link smiled a bit and replied: “I know what you mean. I don’t like it either, but I can’t help it if I’m stuffed.” Rhett grinned a bit and ate the rest of Link’s food, while he looked over to him.  
The dark-haired man was cleaning his revolver and Rhett remembered a question he wanted to ask a few hours ago. “What is your full name? I only know you as Link.” Link raised his eyebrows in confusion and answered: “Why do you want to know that all of a sudden?” “Well…” Rhett thought if he should come up with a lie, when Link responded: “...my full name is Charles Lincoln Neal. Link is just the short version for Lincoln.”  
“So that knife isn’t yours?” Rhett asked and pointed at the knife in Link’s pocket, while he cleaned his fingers on a handkerchief. “Because I saw the initials “S.N.” on it.” Link examined him with narrowed eyes before he averted his gaze and answered: “It isn’t my knife.” Rhett was about to ask if he had stolen it, but he kept quiet. He saw that Link’s posture had changed and he seemed to be a bit tense.  
Rhett tried to diffuse the tension and said: “My full name is Rhett James McLaughlin. I know that you didn’t ask for it, but I feel it wouldn’t be right if I keep it to myself.”  
Link looked up at him again and smiled a bit, before he said: “...Rhett is a nice name. It suits you.”


	8. Cokesbury

It was a few weeks later when Link pointed at the horizon and exclaimed with excitement: “Isn’t that a town!?” Rhett pushed his hat out of his face and followed Link’s gaze. The dirt road underneath their feet seemed to end in a small town. Rhett grinned a bit and scratched his beard. “Looks like we’re finally having some luck…!” “Hell yes!” Link replied happily. The two men walked alongside Rey while Rhett had the reins in his hands.  
Because they didn’t want to ride together on the horse they had decided that both of them would walk. This decision had cost them a lot of time, so they had wandered through the forest for a couple of days. After they had followed the river they had managed to leave the forest behind and were walking towards the rising sun since then. But none of them had thought that the road they had found would really lead them to a city.

 

As the two cowboys came near the town their excitement faded away slowly. It was easy to see that this town was completely deserted. There were no people on the street and the houses looked old and almost rotten. Even the windows were broken and Rhett sighed loudly, before he said: “Well...I expected something better…”  
“Yeah...me too.” Link answered and kicked a wooden sign lying on the ground, while they walked down the main road through the town. “Hey look! There’s a saloon.” Rhett pointed to the biggest building in front of them. “Maybe they have some useful stuff…” Link lifted his hat and brushed through his hair, when he replied: “How about you look around in there and I try to search for supplies in the rest of this town?” Rhett agreed to the idea and he placed Rey in front of the saloon, before he entered the building.  
The afternoon sun illuminated the room and Rhett saw a big layer of dust on the furniture. He could hear the wood creaking under his feet as soon as he took a step. It surprised him to find some playing cards and even some half empty glasses on the tables. Everything seemed like people had been here just a few minutes ago if it weren't for the dust. When the cowboy came to a halt in front of the bar, he remembered Chase and got lost in thoughts for a moment.  
He hadn’t seen anyone of his friends for such a long time now and he started to miss them. It was always a lot of fun to come to the saloon and be greeted by Chase, while he could listen to Jessie’s singing…  
He shook his head a bit to free himself from the thoughts, before he walked up the stairs. The sheriff found a few separate rooms in the upper floor and when he opened the first door, a smile grew on his face. They were all bedrooms for guests and they didn’t seem to be in a bad condition. He walked over to a bed and sat down on it with a quiet sigh. At least they could sleep for one night on something better than the hard ground outside.  
The blonde man stood up after a while and searched through the other rooms as well. One of the rooms was a bathroom but it seemed that the water pump didn’t work properly. When Rhett looked out of the window, he saw the backyard and figured out why the pump didn’t work. The saloon had a mechanic build in so that they could pump water from a well into the building. But even though the well seemed to be intact the pump itself, hanging on the exterior wall, wasn’t. As the sheriff turned around, he glanced at the mirror and was shocked when he saw his reflection.  
His blonde hair was hiding beneath his hat but his beard was the main problem. He almost looked like a caveman. Rhett’s fingers brushed through his facial hair and he swallowed a bit. He was used to visit his barber when his beard grew too long, but after being out in the wilderness for so long, he had forgotten to care about his look. His fingers tried to straighten the hairs a bit so he wouldn’t look too stupid, but it did almost nothing. Rhett let out a frustrated sigh, before he heard Link’s voice calling for him: “Rhett? Where are you?”  
“I’m upstairs! Wait, I’ll come down!” the sheriff answered and left the room. When he came down the stairs he looked around for Link, until he saw him behind the bar. “What are you doing there?” “Look, what I have found!” Link stood up from his crouching position and placed two bottles on the counter. “I also found stuff in some other houses around here.” Rhett nodded a bit and explained: “That’s good! By the way, they have bedrooms upstairs. So we can sleep a little more comfortable tonight.” “Great!”  
While Link brought their stuff upstairs Rhett had exited the building through the backdoor to look around a bit more. He was surprised to find himself on some kind of terrace. A few chairs were stacked to his right and to his left was a big barrel with a little stove underneath it. The blonde man walked towards that thing and examined it further. His eyes lit up when he found out that it was indeed a bathtub. He turned his head and saw next to the terrace the well, which he had seen before. It didn’t take him long to find out that there was still water in it. Rhett send a silent prayer to the gods.  
A warm bath was exactly what he needed.  
After he had helped Link with the rest of the stuff he told him about his new discovery. The other man was as excited as Rhett and suggested, that they should eat first while the bathtub warmed up in the meantime. The tall man agreed and let Link decide what they should eat, because he also wanted to look around the town.

 

A moment later he walked down the main road further into the town and came across some more buildings. It was still a very small town, but Rhett was surprised when he saw a tiny county jail. He chuckled a bit before he entered it, because something told him that Link had steered clear of it. He walked through the small place and looked for something interesting to take with him.  
He didn’t like the thought of stealing things, but it didn’t seem that the people who had lived in this town would come back soon. His eyes suddenly stopped at something that was pinned on the wall. He wiped the dust off of it and started to grin from ear to ear.  
It was a map.  
It seemed that it was a bit old already, but when he found ‘Buies Creek’ on it his heart jumped a little. Finally he had found a way home. He managed to take the map carefully off the wall and rolled it together. Rhett was about to leave when his eyes caught something else. It was placed next to a locker, which had the word ‘Contraband’ written on it. Rhett assumed that they placed all the possession from their criminals in that thing.  
But the guitar that leaned against the side of the locker didn’t fit into this building at all. Rhett wondered if the owner was a criminal or maybe the sheriff himself? He picked up the instrument and played a few notes. The sound wasn’t too bad and Rhett thought back to the time, when he would play the guitar as a teenager.  
With his two newfound treasures he decided to head back to Link to see what the guy was preparing for dinner.


	9. Admiration

Link was almost done with cooking the beans over the fireplace, while Rhett was still filling up the bathtub with water. The stove was already burning and Rhett continued to walk from the well to the tub and back again. It was an exhausting thing to do, but Rhett was still in a good mood because he was looking forward to the dinner and to a warm bath after that. “You shouldn’t fill it up too much. Or else it will just overflow as soon as you jump in!”  
Rhett chuckled a bit and replied: “I know that. And trust me, I won’t bring more water to this thing than I need. This stuff is heavy…!” “Come on, be a man about it and stop whining!” Link said jokingly with a smile on his face, before he placed his pot of coffee over the fire as well.  
After dinner both men cleaned up their dishes and went back to the fire, when Rhett asked: “So...how are we going to decide which one of us is going in first?” He pointed at the bathtub and Link responded with a grin on his face: “How about we just go in the same time?”  
Rhett laughed a bit and shook his head. “Nah, that will never happen!”  
“Ha-ha, okay. Do you want to go first then? I can wait.”  
“Sure!”  
Rhett put a towel next to the bathtub and felt the water temperature with his hand, before he looked over his shoulder to Link. The dark-haired man was sitting on one of the chairs next to the fireplace and examined his gun. Rhett assumed that he wasn’t paying attention to him at all.  
It wasn’t that Rhett had never been naked around another guy, but he still felt like it was a weird thing to do. And whenever he had washed himself in the river over the last couple of days, he had made sure that Link was either still asleep or distracted with cooking, when he had undressed himself. So Rhett looked back at the bathtub and stripped down quickly, before he climbed into the tub.  
When the warm water touched his body, he let out a relaxing sigh and emerged himself completely in the tub. It was an amazing feeling and it seemed to Rhett, that all the stress from the past weeks was slowly dissolving in the water.  
He turned his head again and saw that Link was looking at him with a slight smile on his face. “Looks like you have just entered heaven, eh?” Rhett grinned and nodded a bit. “Absolutely. I’m so glad that we found this place!” Link brushed a few strands of hair out of his face and fumbled with his gun, before he replied: “Yeah...me too.”

 

The sun had already set, when Rhett grabbed the towel and climbed out of the bathtub. He was trying to be as fast as possible when it came to dressing himself. Luckily he was already closing his belt, when Link came out of the building. The smaller guy looked up to Rhett and was raising his eyebrows a bit.  
“Are you already done? You could have stay in there a little while longer.” Rhett shook his head a bit and answered: “If I had stayed any longer my skin would have started to fall off. But I think we should put some more wood in the oven, before you go in.” Link nodded and asked: “Can you do that, while I’m getting my towel?” “Sure.”  
Before Rhett could do him the favor the other man pointed at him suddenly. “It’s almost gone, isn’t it?” “Wh-what?” Rhett asked confused and waited for the answer. “Your wound. I know, that you said that it stopped hurting a while ago...but it seems, that even the scar is getting smaller.” The sheriff looked at his shoulder and had to agree with Link. The wound from the arrow was almost invisible, even though it had taken longer to heal than the wound on his leg. He smiled back at the shorter man and replied: “Well...I guess it’s all thanks to you. I mean, you were the one who took care of that wound.” “You’re welcome!” Link answered, before he went back into the building.  
Rhett laid his shirt to the side and grabbed the pieces of wood from the storage place to fill the oven with them. When he turned around again to finally put on his shirt, he noticed Link standing next to the door.  
It was only for a moment, but he could’ve sworn that Link’s eyes had been glued to his body while his mouth hung open. But as soon as the blonde man had turned around the other one had lowered his head. “...is something wrong?” “What?” Link’s head yanked up again and he stared confused at the sheriff. “Why do you think something is wrong?” Rhett put his arms through the sleeves of his shirt and started to button it, while he responded: “I simply wanted to ask. You gave me a strange look just now.”  
He could hear Link chuckle when he passed him on his way to the bathtub. “You’re imagining things…” Rhett brushed his hand through his hair and glanced at Link, while he came to the decision that Link was right and he had misunderstood the look on his face.  
But when he surveyed Link, he noticed something else.  
The other man seemed to be blushing.  
Rhett wanted to ask him if his question had made him feel uncomfortable, when he noticed that Link was starting to unbutton his shirt. It seemed wrong to watch Link undressing himself, so he just went inside the building. 

 

When Rhett came back outside he found Link already in the bathtub with a pleasant look on his face. The dark-haired man opened his eyes to glance at Rhett. “This is really like heaven!...oh, where did you find that?” Link pointed at the instrument in Rhett’s hand and the taller man smiled at him. “I found it in the county jail. It was just laying there…” “Are you able to play the guitar?” Rhett nodded and walked over to the fireplace to sit down next to it. “Yeah, a little bit. I used to play a lot when I was younger.”  
Link had placed his arms on the rim of the bathtub and had put his head on top of it. “How old are you?” The blonde man looked over to the other one and noticed a curious look on his face. Rhett also noticed that Link looked really different, when his hair was slicked back with water.  
“I’m 27 years old.”  
Link grinned a bit and responded: “I’m 26. So it fits perfectly that you are the one with the beard, old man…” Rhett shook his head amusingly and studied the guitar, before he tried to tune it.  
They both sat there for a while in complete silence with the exception of one or two sounds from the guitar. Suddenly Rhett heard Link speaking again, so he looked up to him. “Do you think...that you would be able to do that?” “Do what?” Link had his hands behind his head and had also tilted it a bit to look into the night sky. “Leave everything behind and start a new life. You know...like the people in this town did.” Rhett thought about the question for a moment and stopped tuning the instrument. “...I think...it depends…”  
“On what?”  
“The circumstances. Like...what I could take with me. Or who.”  
Link lowered his head and Rhett saw that he was staring at him with a strange look on his face. “...who would you take with you?”  
“Don’t know...probably my friends…”  
Rhett looked down at the guitar again and started to tune it, while he still had Link’s question in his mind. He really thought about how his life would be, if he had to give up everything he had at this moment. And then he thought about how sad it would be, if he wouldn’t be able to see his friends again.  
No Jessie, who would sing for him everyday…no Chase, who would serve him the best drinks...no Christy, who would greet him with a cute smile...no Link, who would make him laugh at the campfire-  
His thoughts came to an abrupt end. Why was he thinking about Link? How did that guy manage to sneak into his thoughts right now? Rhett swallowed a bit and looked back to the dark-haired man. He had his eyes closed while his arms laid on the rim. It seemed to Rhett, that he was thinking about something important, because he sat there with a furrowed brow.

 

A while later Rhett was playing some short melodies and even hummed a bit, until he heard loud water splashing sounds. He glanced over to the tub and started to blush immediately. Link had finished his bath and was climbing out of the bathtub, but in such an angle that Rhett was able to see...everything.  
The blonde man put his head down in an instant and start to fumble around with the guitar, as if he tried to tune it again. In situations like this Rhett always asked himself what was worse: To see or be seen? He shook his head and dared to give Link another glance, when he heard his belt buckle clink. He was relieved to see that Link was already wearing his pants, while some water drops were still running down his spine. Rhett remembered the time where Link had tried to catch the fish in the river and got completely wet.  
It was on that day that the sheriff had seen him without a shirt for the first time. And just like back then, he was completely blown away by the fact how trained Link’s muscles seemed to be. His eyes followed the drops while he asked himself how his own body looked. He knew that his body wasn’t out of shape, but Link’s slim figure was kinda astonishing.  
The blush crept back onto his face when Link’s head turned around, while he asked jokingly: “Am I that interesting?” Rhett averted his eyes and replied: “Ah-...no-! I mean-...kinda...no, what I meant, was...how did you even notice?”  
Link giggled and turned around completely, while he grabbed his shirt and walked over to the entrance of the building. “I looked back a couple of times...but you were kinda focused, so I didn’t want to disturb you.” Rhett brushed with his fingers through his hair while he tried to look not too embarassed. “Well...it was just that...You’re in really good shape. I was kinda...admiring that.” he answered honestly. Link stopped in the doorframe, his shirt still in his hand, and gave Rhett a charming smile.  
“Thank you! It makes me happy to hear that you admire my body.”


	10. Harmony

It didn’t take long for the dark-haired man to come back to Rhett. The tall guy was playing a longer melodie and was completely into it until a different tune caught his ears. He stopped playing and looked up to Link, who was standing next to the fire. He still hadn’t put his shirt back on but he held a small harmonica in front of his lips. Rhett raised his eyebrows and asked: “You have a harmonica?” Link nodded and sat down in the other chair while he pointed with his harmonica to Rhett’s guitar. “Yeah. I thought we could play a bit together.” The sheriff grinned and nodded. “Sounds like a great idea!”  
Rhett placed his hands on the guitar and started to play another melodie. Link could easily join in and the sound of the two instruments made Rhett smile even more. He closed his eyes to enjoy the music that they created together.  
They played the tune for a little while before Rhett started to sing some random things. He sang about their journey through the woods and what they had experienced so far. Link messed up a few notes whenever Rhett would sing something funny, but it still sounded like a nice song.  
It was Rhett’s turn to mess up some notes, when he heard that the tone of the harmonica was being replaced by a soft voice. His eyes flung open and he stopped singing to look surprised at Link.  
The young cowboy sang another verse of their self-made song and Rhett was amazed by his voice. When Link also opened his eyes after the verse, he gave Rhett a smile before he started to play the harmonica again.  
Rhett licked his lips and grinned a bit, before he started to sing again. But this time he left his eyes open to watch Link playing his instrument. He saw that the other one was doing the same and the closer Rhett got to the end of his verse, the more he hoped that Link would join him in the refrain.  
He got goosebumps when the smaller man lowered the harmonica and his eyes looked excitedly at Link.  
They both started to sing the refrain and Rhett’s heart made a jump, when he heard the beautiful harmony. He remembered that he had experienced something similar with Jessie back in the days when he had played the guitar for her. But even if their voices sounded nice together, it was nothing compared to how perfect Link’s voice matched his own.  
They continued to sing for a while, sometimes at the same time, sometimes one after another until they sang the last verse which they ended on a long note.  
Both men stared at each other in silent for a moment. Rhett was still amazed by the fact that Link could sing so well, so he just grinned silly at him. Link also had a wide smile on his lips while he locked eyes with Rhett.  
“I...I didn’t think that this would...turn out so well!” the smaller man said. Rhett nodded a bit and replied: “You have an incredible singing voice, do you know that?” Link laughed a bit and shook his head, before he pointed at Rhett. “See who is talking! You have the voice of an angel, man. I was even afraid to start singing at all because I didn’t want to ruin the song!”  
Rhett also started to laugh and answered: “Well...I hope you will never be afraid to sing with me again. Because this was freaking awesome!” A smile lightened up Link’s face before he responded in a soft voice: “Yes, it truly was!”

 

Later that night Rhett rolled around in his bed so he could lay on his side. Even though he had tried to sleep for a while now he was still wide awake. He was thinking about the evening and about his journey with Link. It was almost as if they had become good friends over time. Especially the moments where they had talked at the campfire were some precious ones for Rhett. And their singing was still so awesome to Rhett, that he really hoped that they would do that again.  
But his face got a reflective look on it when he thought about the reason he had started this journey in the first place.  
Link was still a criminal.  
And Rhett was still a sheriff.  
The blonde man bit his lip and looked out of the window. He couldn’t forget about his duty just because they had some funny moments together. He couldn’t just overlook his crimes.  
But...could he really put Link into jail?  
Rhett imagined how it would be to turn Link in. Maybe the court would pronounce him guilty of murder. What if he had to spend his life in jail? Or what if....they sentenced him to death…?  
When Rhett’s imagination led him to a Link on the gallows, he sat straight up and breathed heavily. His throat felt constricted and when he blinked he felt something wet in the corner of his eyes. He rubbed with his palms over his eyes and tried to breathe more slowly. He didn’t want to see Link like that...but what should he do to prevent it?  
The tall man swallowed a bit and stood up to walk to the window. A look into the night sky almost always calmed him down, when his thoughts kept him awake. He saw thousands of lights in the sky through that half dirty window and a small smile appeared on his lips. Maybe he would find a way to fulfill his duty without harming Link.  
Rhett was about to go back to bed, when he saw a movement at the ground. The chairs stood around the burned down fireplace. But thanks to the moonlight Rhett could clearly see a certain someone sitting in one of the chairs.  
Link had turned his back to the house and looked into the night sky. Rhett was asking himself, what the guy was doing out there in the middle of the night. He was about to open the window to talk to him, but he decided against it. Maybe Link needed some time alone...and Rhett was willing to give it to him.  
So the sheriff turned his back to the window and crawled back into the bed, while he hoped, that he could finally find some sleep.


	11. Trust

Rhett woke up the next morning and blinked a few times before he sat up straight in bed. He felt like he was still a bit tired, but because the sun was shining through the window he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again. He stood up and stretched himself a bit before he took his clothes from the chair nearby.  
It didn’t take him long to be dressed so he grabbed his cowboy hat and made his way down the stairs. Rhett wanted to wash himself with the water from the well so he stepped out of the building, just to find Link already outside.  
The young man was sitting on a chair in front of a mirror, that he had hung on one of the pillars of the terrace. Next to him was a small bucket full of water with some foam floating on top of it. The same foam was around parts of his mouth as well and he was holding a sharp blade in his hand. His facial expression was serious when he looked into the mirror and Rhett watched him shaving his own face. He must have had a confused look on his face, because Link’s eyes glanced at him in the mirror before he turned around to face him. One half of his face was still covered in the white foam.  
“Good Morning! Is something wrong? Because you’re giving me a strange look right now…” Rhett shook his head in an instant and walked over to the well, after he had placed his hat on of the chairs near the unlit fireplace. “Morning. Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare at you. I was just...surprised?”  
Link chuckled. “Because you saw a clean shaven man?” Rhett rolled his eyes a bit and drew water from the well while he responded in a playful tone: “No. But I was a bit startled to see that you’re shaving yourself. I mean...you don’t look like a barber at all.” Link’s laughter caught Rhett’s ears and he started to wash his face in the bucket that he had pulled up. “Well...that’s because I’m not a barber. I simply shave my own beard. Have you never done that?” Rhett looked up and shook his head, so that water drops flew around.  
“Of course not! I’m not crazy! Holding a blade against my skin? No way I’m doing that.”  
Link stared at him for a moment before he continued to shave himself. “But you would trust someone else with that? That seems more crazy to me, actually…”  
Rhett grabbed his towel and dried his face off, before he went back to Link. “Well...I have this beard for a long time now so I don’t want to mess it up by cutting it myself.” The dark-haired man didn’t answer him until he was finished with his face.  
Link put the blade aside and grabbed his towel to clean his face completely. Rhett saw that he observed his chin properly to see if there were any strands of hair he had forgotten. After he seemed satisfied with his image, he turned to Rhett and gave his face a once over. “Do you want me to cut it?”  
“What? No, I like this beard and I want to keep it!” Link grinned and shook his head. “I don’t mean that I wanted to shave your beard off. I meant if I should trim it a bit? Because...even if the beard suits you...that…”thing” on your face isn’t really a beard anymore.”  
Rhett stroked his beard and nodded slightly in agreement, after he had remembered how much his current look had scared him yesterday. Link stood up and pointed at the chair while he made a gesture for Rhett to sit down. The tall man did so and watched as Link replaced the used water with some fresh one. He also got a pair of scissors out of his bag, which he sharpened on a small grindstone.  
“Should I also cut your hair a bit?” “Do you even know how my hair originally looked like?” Link smiled at him and nodded with confidence. “Yes. I’ll give you the same look that you had during the festival. Because I think you got a haircut right before that.” Rhett looked a bit surprised at him and asked: “How do you know that?” The dark-haired man placed a finger on his lips and smiled at Rhett. “That will be my secret!”

 

Rhett tried to sit as still as possible when Link started to cut his beard. He did it very slowly so the sheriff would have a chance to relax a bit. It was strange to him that he allowed someone other than Edward to touch his beard, but he didn’t want to look like a monster anymore. He observed Link during the process and was astonished how focused the other man looked. All his movements were very precise and it felt like he wasn’t doing this for the first time. “Have you...ever cut someone else’s hair before?”  
A small smile appeared on Link’s lips for a moment, while his eyes never left Rhett’s cheek. “Yes. But only the hair of a female. You are the first male” “Really?...but you also cut your own hair, right?” “Yeah. So don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”  
Rhett thought about his answer for a moment and decided to carry on this conversation. “Do you always wanted to become a barber or something? Or why are you so good at this?” Link giggled a bit and changed the side. “How do you know if I’m good or not? I have barely started and you won’t see the results until the end.” “It’s just the way you’re doing it. Your movements are accurate.”  
Link stopped for a moment and turned his head slightly to look at Rhett. Rhett’s eyes searched for Link’s and when he found the blue sapphires, he tried to decipher the look they gave him.  
It was in the moment when Link started to smile again that Rhett noticed how close their faces were. He tried to avoid looking at the other man’s lips while his opponent spoke. “Thank you. It’s nice to hear compliments from you.” Rhett didn’t know how to reply to that. He focused his eyes on something behind Link so that his face was straight again and to let Link continue with the cutting.

 

A while later the beard was cut shorter and Link had moved on to apply some of the shaving foam on Rhett’s neck. The blonde man looked into the sky and noticed that it was almost as blue as Link’s eyes. Those were focused on the blade which Link also sharpened on the grindstone like the scissors before. Rhett couldn’t suppress a nervous swallow when he looked at the blade and Link seemed to notice that.  
“Are you afraid?”  
“Afraid isn’t the right word...it’s just...I’m a bit worried.” Link eyed him up before putting the grindstone away. He had also put the bottle with water on a chair next to Rhett, which he would use to rinse off the foam. The dark-haired man positioned himself behind Rhett’s chair and put his free hand lightly around the front of his neck, right below the foam. Rhett closed his eyes because he didn’t want to see the sharp blade in the other man’s hand.  
He was expecting Link to start shaving his neck, but a few minutes passed while Link just stood there with his hand on Rhett’s skin. The sheriff blinked a bit and looked up at Link, who was calmly looking down at him.  
“...I can feel your pulse. You’re still too nervous for me to start.”  
Rhett stared at him with wide eyes and was unable to respond to him. Link explained: “It’s okay for you to be a bit afraid. It’s always a bit intimidating to let someone put a blade on your neck. But I don’t want to start shaving when you’re still unsure about it. Because I could hurt you if you would make a quick movement out of anxiety or something.”  
Rhett bit his lip and averted his eyes before he spoke: “I...I know that you won’t hurt me. But... I’m still a bit tense...I can’t really help it.”  
Rhett was almost about to give up the whole shaving thing, when he heard the angelic voice from the night before. He looked up to Link and saw that he was singing a calm song, while he was still looking down to the blonde man. Rhett’s lips turned into a smile, while he also felt a gentle caressing from Link’s fingertips on his neck. He closed his eyes again with the smile still on his face and he could feel that his body slowly relaxed. Link kept singing while he started to slide the blade carefully across Rhett’s skin to remove the hair underneath his chin.

 

It didn’t take long for Link to shave the hair off of Rhett’s neck. He then gestured the sheriff to sit up straight again, so he could start cutting his hair after cleaning up his skin. Rhett just stared at the horizon and listened to Link’s singing, when he suddenly started a new song.  
It took Rhett a few moments until he realized that he had heard that song before. “This is...one of Jessie’s songs!” Link continued cutting when he asked: “Who is Jessie?”  
“The woman from the bar in Buies Creek. She sings there all the time.” “The one who was with you at the festival? The dark-haired one?”  
Rhett smiled a bit. “Yes. That is Jessie.” “I heard that song at the bar. I think it was one day before the festival. It sounded really nice.” The sheriff sighed a bit when he thought about Jessie’s singing. “She can sing so good. We used to sing together all the time when we were younger.”  
Link waited with his question until he was done with the sides. “Are you two dating?” “No.” the sheriff replied in an instant. “It sure looked like it.” Link murmured as he began to cut the strands of hair on top.  
“I know. A lot of people seem to think that. But she is just a good friend. Nothing romantic between us.” “Hmm.” “...are you not asking me about Christy as well?” “What do you expect me to ask about her?” “Well...if we have dated before or not.” Rhett heard a snicker above him and raised his eyebrows. “I don’t need to ask that. I know that you two have never dated.” “How do you know that?”  
Link walked around Rhett and stood in front of him. His eyes were still focus on the blonde hair and he proceeded to cut it from the new angle. “The way you look at her is different than the way you look at Jessie. It’s a protective look. You’re watching over Christy as if she is your sister or something. And she also told me that you two are not dating.”  
Rhett was surprised to hear this explanation from Link. Everyone has always thought that the sheriff was either dating Jessie or Christy. But the fact that Link had seen through their relationship so fast, despite the fact that Christy had also told him something, made him a bit speechless.  
“It’s done! Do you want to take a look?” Rhett nodded and Link helped him brushing away the strands of hair from his shoulder. When he finished that, Rhett stood up and turned to the mirror to look at himself. The image in front of him made his eye’s lit up. His fingers brushed over the beard and through his hair while he admired his reflection. “This is great! It really looks like I always have it!” The blonde man turned around and put his hand on Link’s shoulder. “Thank you for doing this!”  
“Anytime, Rhett.”


	12. Criminal

Later that day Rhett sat on a table inside the saloon. He had the map rolled out in front of him and was trying to decide which way they should go next. The door creaked when Link walked in and he came over to Rhett, while he asked: “What are you doing here?” “I’m trying to figure out which direction we should head next.” “Wait, you have a map!?” Link looked over his shoulder and studied the map in excitement.  
“Ah, yeah. I totally forgot to tell you. I found it in the county jail as well.” “Where are we?” Rhett pointed at a small town that read ‘Cokesbury’. “So the quickest way back to Buies Creek would be-” But Rhett couldn’t even finish his thought before Link interrupted him: “Let’s go there!”  
Link’s left hand grabbed Rhett’s chair back and his right index finger was placed on a town named ‘Chalybeate Springs’, while he leaned over the tall man. “What? Why should we go there? It would be a devious route!” “But then we would be sooner in another town. With actual humans and stuff.”  
Rhett shook his head and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “It doesn’t make any sense to take that route. I would suggest that we just follow the direct one.” “But...we need to go to Chalybeate Springs! Please!”  
Rhett looked up to the dark-haired man and asked: “Is there something important that you withhold?” Link looked at Rhett and for a moment the sheriff saw the hesitation to answer him in his eyes. “No!” He finally said and stood upright, before his eyes left Rhett’s face and studied the map again. “I...I just think it’s a good idea.” “Why are you lying to me, Link?” Rhett looked disbelieving to his companion and waited for a truthful answer.  
“I’m not lying! I just don’t get why you would rather spend more time in the wild than go to a town!” “Well, because I’m missing my friends and I would like to see them again as quick as possible! That’s why I want to go the direct route to Buies Creek!”  
Link looked at the blonde man with a steely glance and talked back: “Why do you care about them anyway? It’s not like someone has come after you in all this time, right?” Those cold words felt like a slap to Rhett. His mouth opened slowly and he stared at Link as if he was a different person. When Link saw Rhett’s shocked face he averted his eyes with a guilty look and swallowed a bit, before he tried to place his hand on Rhett’s shoulder.  
“Look...Rhett, I’m...I’m sorry-...I didn’t mean-!” But Rhett pushed his hand away from him and walked over to the stairs while he said: “You won. We’ll take the route to Chalybeate Springs. But when we arrive there...our deal is over.”

 

Rhett stood next to Rey and tried to secure their luggage on the horse. More than an hour had passed since his conversation with Link but he still thought about it. It wasn’t even the fact that Link didn’t want to tell him why he wanted to visit Chalybeate Springs which made him mad. It was the fact that Link had lied to him. A few hours ago it was Link who wanted Rhett’s trust, when it came to the shaving process. And now he wasn’t even able to give the same trust to Rhett in return. The blonde man shook his head a bit and sighed quietly.  
The doors to the saloon were opened and the dark-haired man stepped outside. Rhett didn’t even glance at him and focused on the luggage instead. Out of the corner of his eye the tall man noticed that Link came to halt next to him, when he started to speak.  
“Hey Rhett...can we...talk?” “I don’t think we have anything to talk about.” “Please. This is important for me.”  
Rhett sighed again and dropped his hands before he faced Link. The young cowboy stood defeated in front of Rhett and took a deep breath before he began to talk.  
“I know that you’re still a sheriff. And that is actually the only reason why I didn’t tell you this before…” He stopped at that point and looked Rhett directly into the eyes. “I have a very important reason why I want to go to Chalybeate Springs. It has something to do with some criminals.” Rhett raised his eyebrows in question. “But...you’re a criminal as well!”  
“I’m trying to explain myself right now! So please stop calling me that until you’ve heard everything, okay?” The sheriff crossed his arms in front of his chest and watched as Link pulled some papers out of the back pocket of his pants. “I’m searching for these guys.” He unfolded the papers and Rhett looked at two wanted posters, which he had seen before.  
“John Carson and his brother Zac Carson? I read about them...they did a number of bad things. But what is your deal with them?” “I need to find them. That’s why...that’s why I stole this from you.” Link pulled out another sheet of paper. This time it had a lot of names written on it. “Is that the wanted list for the criminals around here!?” Rhett asked and stared confused at the list. Link nodded and showed it to Rhett, while he pointed at two names. “John and Zac Carson...last seen in Chalybeate Springs….” The blonde man raised his head and looked over the paper towards Link.  
“You don’t think that they are still there, do you? It takes a while for the papers to even reach a certain sheriff. And we have traveled for a long time now.” “It is at least possible that I can find some clues to their whereabouts in that town…”  
Rhett crossed his arms in front of the chest again and gave Link a stern look. “Okay, that explains Chalybeate Springs. But that doesn’t explain why I shouldn’t name you a criminal. You stole things and you murdered someone.” “I didn’t do it, I swear!” Link folded the papers and put them back into his pocket, before he explained more. “It’s true that I stole the list and the posters from your office. I mean, how could I even try to deny that? You saw me that night, didn’t you?”  
Rhett nodded a bit and said: “Yeah. And my head didn’t forget the encounter the next day either.” “I’m sorry.” Link replied in a honest voice before he continued: “But when I asked you about the papers before, you seemed like you wouldn’t give them to me. So I stole them.” “And what is with Morgan?”  
Link swallowed a bit and dropped his gaze to the ground. “It...was an accident. I admit that I wanted to steal some money from his house that night. Because Christy told me that he was the kind of guy who would often stay the night with the ladies in their houses. So I waited until she fell asleep and made my way to his house. I had gathered enough to leave when he suddenly came back home. He immediately drew a gun and wanted to shoot me down. So I grabbed his hands and we both fought for a bit...until I heard a gunshot.”  
Link bit his lips and looked up at Rhett again.  
His heart dropped when he saw that Link’s beautiful blue eyes were watery. He also knew how the story would continue, before Link said the next sentence: “He shot himself. He had the gun pointed at him in the fight and...pulled the trigger by accident.”  
The smaller man whispered. “I couldn’t do anything. He just fell to the floor and laid there. Motionless.” Link took a shaky breath and shook his head slightly. “You can call me a criminal for stealing the stuff...but...don’t call me a murderer. It was never my intention to kill him.”  
Rhett took a long breath and thought about Link’s words for a bit. He then put one hand on the others man’s shoulder, until Link looked up to him again.  
“How about I just call you a companion for now? I mean...our journey is far from over, right?” Link looked up in disbelief at Rhett until the sheriff started to smile a bit.  
The sapphires turned into a look of relief and Link’s lips were shaking a bit when he answered: “Companion sounds great!”


	13. Family

Two days went by since the two men had left the town ‘Cokesbury’. Just as before they had walked alongside Rey and came to halt whenever they needed to eat, sleep or hunt for some food. The only thing that they had added to their routine was a bit of music. Sometimes Rhett would start to play the guitar, while Link accompanied him with his harmonica. And other times they would both just sing a little bit to make their journey more fun.  
The sky was an array of orange and red due to the setting sun. Link looked over to Rhett and asked: “We are not going into another forest, are we?” The sheriff was currently reading the map to ensure that they were on the right track, when he heard Link’s question. He looked at him first before he gazed in front of them.  
Rhett smiled a bit and shook his head before he gave Link another look. “That is not a forest. I actually thought we could stay there overnight. It’s just a bunch of trees around a pond or a small lake, according to this map. So one side of the lake is completely free from trees, which is where we should go.” Link grinned and the concern left his eyes immediately. “That sounds really good!”

 

It didn’t take long until the men arrived at the pond and started to set up their camp. Rhett led Rey to a place where he found a patch of green grass and took the reins, as well as the saddle, from him. The horse started to eat while Rhett went back to Link to put the saddle down. “Would you collect some firewood for-” The dark-haired man began his sentence but stopped himself in the middle of it, when he looked up at Rhett. The sheriff had lift his cowboy hat to brush through his hair, when he noticed Link’s look of astonishment.  
“Wh-what is it?” the blonde man asked nervous, before placing his hat back on his head. “You just…” Link swallowed a bit and tried to avert his gaze a bit. “...with the sunset in your back...you...you looked really good. It made me a bit speechless, I guess!” Rhett felt a blush creeping onto his cheeks, while he turned his head to give the sunset a look himself. The sun had a dark red color and looked truly beautiful.  
“I personally think that my face is destroying the scenery, if anything.” Rhett mumbled and was surprised, when Link got onto his feet and placed a hand on his shoulder. “That’s not true! Don’t say that!” the dark-haired man said in a firm tone and Rhett turned his head again to look at him.  
For a second it seemed to Rhett that everything stood still. He had opened his mouth to answer Link, but seeing the other man’s longing look made him speechless. The blue sapphires reflected the sunlight and seemed to gleam, which made Rhett’s pulse go up. Link had opened his mouth as well, maybe to defend his point even more, but he was also unable to speak.  
That was until his lips formed into a smile.  
“Your eyes are not only green, right…? It’s the first time that I’m seeing the gray color in them as well…!” Link spoke in a very calm voice, but when Rhett answered him it was almost a whisper. “But they’re nothing special compared to your eyes...”  
When Rhett saw that Link’s eyebrows raised in wonder, he averted his gaze immediately and took a step back. The hand left his shoulder and Rhett scratched his beard a bit, before he walked past Link and towards the trees. “You...You wanted me to get firewood, right…?” the sheriff asked in a louder voice, while he hid his blushing face by turning his back to Link. “Yes…” the cowboy answered him in a small voice, and Rhett felt that his gaze was still following him.

 

Rhett was taking his time collecting the firewood, because he needed to be alone for a bit. Something inside of him felt weird. But weird in a good way. And he couldn’t figure out what it was. But he knew that it had something to do with Link.  
He collected sticks from the ground while he walked around the pond, lost in his thoughts. Maybe it had something to do with the way Link looked at him sometimes. Or maybe Link looked at him like a normal person, and it was Rhett who wasn’t acting normal anymore? The sheriff sighed a bit and remembered his encounters with Link and the time they had spent together.  
Link’s eyes were like nothing Rhett had ever seen before. Those blue eyes were truly beautiful, and the blonde man wasn’t even ashamed to admit that to himself.  
But it was also the way that he sometimes smiled at Rhett. Or the things he did and said that left the sheriff speechless, and with a confused mind from time to time. And Rhett didn’t know why. He realized all of a sudden that his arms were full with firewood, so he decided to head back to Link. When he saw the dark-haired man filling up their water bottles next to the pond, Rhett asked himself if it was the thought of him as a friend that left him confused sometimes. Because he knew that his bond with Link was getting stronger by the day and not calling him a friend would be an insult. But calling him that, while Rhett was still fighting for justice with Link standing on the other side, was possibly the reason for Rhett’s uneasiness.  
Maybe he could try to find out more about that man with those piercing blue eyes, who looked up to him with a wide smile on his face right now. He hoped that at least a bit more information might scare away the strange feelings he was having, when he was around Link.

 

“It’s the first time that I’m seeing the initials on that saddle!” Link pointed out, while he poured some coffee into Rhett’s mug. The man had occupied himself by cleaning his boots, as he waited for the food to be ready. “Hm?” He raised his head and gave Link a quick glance, before he looked over to the saddle.  
“D&J? I don’t know if J stands for your middle name James, but-” “Those are my parents’ names. Diane and James. That saddle was a gift from them.” “Oh. I don’t think that I have ever seen or even heard from your parents while I was in Buies Creek.” Link said as he put the mug next to Rhett, before he placed his arms around his knees and faced Rhett. “That’s because they don’t live there anymore. They left the town years ago.” “Why?”  
Rhett turned his boot around in the light of the fireplace to find more dirt, before he began to tell the story. “My mother loved to travel. So she always wanted to see new places. But she had to settle down when she became a mother, and even though she loved her family, she wasn’t truly happy. So my father decided to leave Buies Creek to make her happy again.”  
Rhett smiled a bit and looked over to Link. “That’s the reason why Jessie and I are such good friends by the way. I wanted to stay in Buies Creek so Mr and Mrs Lane, Jessie’s parents, took charge of me when I was younger. But I still never saw her as a sister. Because she always liked me a bit more than someone would like their brother.”  
“But do you know where your parents are now?”  
“Yeah, they moved to the west coast. Sometimes I get letters from them or from Cole.”  
“Who is Cole?”  
“My older brother. They took him with them when they left.”  
“Do you not miss him?”  
Rhett shook his head a bit and grabbed the other boot. “No. I have only known him until I was 14. That’s not a time when you start to bond with your siblings, I guess.” Link’s eyes glanced to the fire, while a sad smile appeared on his lips. “It depends on the sibling, I think…”  
Rhett looked up to the other man and asked: “Do you have siblings?” The other man bit his lip and it seemed that he was trying to fight back the tears.  
“I had one. A sister.” Link answered in a very quiet voice. His eyes were still glued to the fireplace and Rhett saw the flames reflecting in his eyes, while he put his boots to the side. He wanted to give Link his full attention.  
“...you ‘had’...?”  
Link nodded. “She was the sweetest person on earth. Our parents died when we were young, due to a disease. So...she was the only one I had. But she would always stand up for me when someone tried to mock me.” “What’s her name?” Rhett asked in the same calm tone, that Link was speaking in.  
“Stevie Neal.” The dark-haired man gave Rhett a quick look before he stared at the flames again. “It was her initials on the knife. It belonged to her.” Rhett could feel his pulse rising, because he loved to hear more about Link. But he was also feeling nervous, since there was still that one question that he was almost too afraid to ask. “...what happened to her?”  
Link bit his lips again and this time Rhett could see anger flashing in his eyes. “...she was killed. Those bastards robbed the carriage that she and her friends had taken to visit another town. But instead of just leaving them...they….they just murdered her!” Suddenly Link raised his head and stared directly into Rhett’s eyes.  
He could see that the blue sapphires were filled with tears, when Link explained: “That is the reason why I want to find the Carson brothers! They are the murderers! And I will kill them to get revenge for my sister!”  
Rhett was shocked when he heard the story and seeing the pain in Link’s eyes didn’t help him to feel better. “H-how do you know it was them…?” He managed to ask, without looking away from Link. “Everyone knew it was them. They robbed so many people at that time...and everyone was too afraid to do something against them! That’s why I started to search for John and Zac!” “But Link, ...do you really think that your sister would want that?”  
“What!?” “I mean...she wouldn’t want you to become a murderer like them, right?” Link stared at Rhett with wide eyes and an open mouth for a moment, before he found his voice again.  
“Have you even listened to me, Rhett!?”  
“I have, but-!”  
“She was KILLED! Then why shouldn’t I also take their lives!?”  
“Because then you would also be a criminal like them! You should let the authorities handle that. I mean, they already have their wanted posters and-”  
“I fucking KNEW IT!” Link yelled at him and stood up, before he wiped with his hands around the corners of his eyes. “I knew that you wouldn’t understand me! You are the same goddamn sheriff that you were when we met for the first time! You will always see me as the bad guy and as a criminal, am I right? Because you will never change as long as you’re wearing this stupid, shiny badge on your chest!” Rhett looked up in disbelief at Link, but when the other man turned around to run off, he jumped to his feet and grabbed his wrist. “Hey wait! I never said anything about you being the bad guy!”  
“Let me go!! I don’t want to talk to you anymore!” Link had faced Rhett again, but his eyes were glued to the sheriff’s hand around his wrist. He tried to free himself from the grip while Rhett continued the conversation: “That’s childish, Link. Come on, let’s sit down again. I think you misunderstood-”  
“Ohhh, now you’re thinking I’m a child, huh!? Just leave me alone, Rhett! I don’t want to hear your stupid explanations! Because they are just a bunch of lies!” Rhett bit his lip and grabbed Link’s other wrist as well, so he couldn’t get away. “Link, please stop saying that! I don’t want to fight!” “Let me go!!!!”  
The dark-haired man still tried to get away while he looked up at Rhett with tearful eyes. The sight broke Rhett’s heart, and he heard himself say in a breathy voice: “Please, don’t cry, Link…” The smaller man stared furiously into the sheriff's eyes and answered, while a few tears rolled down his cheeks: “Why does it matter to you if I’m crying or not-!?”  
The blonde man didn’t give him a chance to say another hurtful sentence to him. Instead he just pulled Link to him and put his arms around the dark-haired man. Link was still trying to get away, but Rhett held him tight and pressed the other man’s body into his own chest. “Because I care for you, Link!” Rhett answered, while his head laid on Link’s shoulder.  
“You’re lying!” Link answered in a bleating voice and Rhett could feel the wet spots on his shirt where his tears had fallen down. “I’m not lying, Link!” Rhett assured him in a calm voice. He could still feel that Link was trying to get away, but he didn’t want to let him go. He knew that he would lose him forever if he would leave him alone right now.  
So the sheriff turned his head and spoke softly into Link’s ear: “What have I done wrong? Because I know you’re not upset about your sister right now. So please tell me, why are you so angry all of a sudden…?” The other man didn’t answer but Rhett felt his hands were shaking, when he tried to push him away one last time.  
The next sob from Link seemed to flip a switch in his mind, because all of a sudden his hands flung around Rhett’s body and he pressed his face into the sheriff’s chest. Rhett could feel Link’s trembling hands on his back, while the tears made his shirt even more wet than before.  
“Why do you have to be a sheriff, Rhett?” the shorter man asked in a tearstained voice. Rhett didn’t know how to answer that question, but it didn’t matter, because Link continued to talk: “I don’t want to be put in jail by your hands! I know that you have to fulfill your duties and that you need to take care of criminals, but I wouldn’t be able to handle this betrayal! I’m not afraid of jail itself, if I ever kill those men...however I...I don’t want to see the disappointment in your eyes, when I’m being handcuffed! But I also...I need to kill those men! I would never find peace as long as they’re out there murdering more innocent people!”  
Rhett swallowed and closed his eyes while he listened to Link’s sobbing. He didn’t know that Link had also thought about the moment, when Rhett had to decide for justice or against it. The fear in the other man’s voice was enough to make Rhett breathe heavily, as if some unknown force was pressing the air out of his lungs. He wanted to calm Link down, but he knew that his next words would be important and that they needed to be truthful.  
He had to make his decision.  
Not in a few days when they would finally arrive in Chalybeate Springs.  
But right here, right now.  
His mind was screaming for justice. He was a sheriff after all. He had helped so many people with his job. And he hated criminals so much. But when he opened his eyes again and felt his own tears rolling down on his face, he listened to his heart when he responded to Link.  
“I will never put you in jail, Link. I could never do that no matter what the badge on my chest stands for. I would betray myself if I did that.” he whispered into Link’s ear, before he closed his eyes again. He could hear that the sobbing had stopped, when Link held his breath.  
“...Rhett, you can’t-”  
“I’m serious. I can’t promise that I will help you avenge your sister...but I won’t let anyone put you in jail.” They stood in silence for a moment, after Rhett had spoken his words. Rhett assumed that Link was too focused on thinking about the promise, so he didn’t replied to him. Both of them seemed to calm down after a few moments, while Rhett’s heart was still racing. The sheriff loosened the embrace a bit to wipe away the tears on his face, before he let go of Link completely.  
The other man held his head down, until Rhett took hold of his face and lifted it slowly so that Link would look him into the eyes. The sapphires were still glistening and Rhett used his thumbs to carefully wipe away the remaining tears from his cheeks.  
“You’re ruining your beautiful eyes with those stupid tears.” the sheriff said in a soft voice while he smiled at Link. The other one grinned a bit and placed his hands lightly on Rhett’s to pull them away from his face in a gentle motion. “I bet I look like a monster right now...it’s been a long time since I had to cry so much…” Rhett shook his head and brushed with one of his hands through Link’s hair to smooth it a bit.  
“Don’t worry. You still look great. And besides, I’m the only one who would see you like this right now. Well...and Rey of course.” Rhett noticed that Link was still holding his hand, when he felt the grip tighten for a second, before Link answered: “If I don’t scare you away with my look...then I’m okay with that…!”  
Rhett grinned and stroked the other man’s arm for a moment, before he said: “You could never scare me away from you. But let’s eat now, okay? I feel like I’m starving!”  
Link laughed a bit and agree to that idea, before he sat down next to Rhett in front of the fire.


	14. Confessions

After they had finished eating Link had started to wash the dishes, while Rhett was drying them off. They hadn’t talked much during dinner, but it wasn’t an unpleasant silence between them. Rhett figured it was more likely that both of the men had tried to sort their feelings after that emotional break down. His own train of thoughts was interrupted when Link handed him his knife to dry it off. Rhett wiped the cloth over the blade and found himself examining the initials again. He stopped, when he saw that Link was staring at him and the sheriff handed him the knife in an instant.  
But to Rhett’s surprise Link was smiling at him, when he took the knife and said: “Feel free to ask me about her, if you like. I wouldn’t have told you her story, if I hadn’t known how much I can trust you.” “But...I don’t want to hurt you by asking question about her just to satisfy my curiosity.”  
Link placed the knife back in the holster and glanced at Rhett, before he grabbed the last plate. “You won’t hurt me. Talking about my sister is just a way to remember her.” “...What did she look like?” “She had long, blonde hair and blue eyes. She was really pretty.” Rhett smiled when he grabbed the plate to dry it off. “Sounds a bit like Christy. Well, except for the blue eyes. But Stevie was the reason why you knew that Christy and I weren’t dating, right?” Rhett remembered suddenly and handed the plate back. Link nodded and started to put away the clean dishes, while Rhett sat down next to the fire. “Yeah, the way you looked at that pretty blonde woman reminded me of my sister and I. But her personalities are as different as night and day.”  
Rhett stared into the flames and tried to imagine a person, with a personality that was the complete opposite of Christy. “It sounds as if Stevie was a lot more like Jessie then….hey, what do you have there?” The other man pulled two bottles out of his bag and held them up with a grin on his face. “Do you remember what I found in the saloon? I thought we could make this evening a bit better. What do you say?” The sheriff had the same grin on his face and tapped on the floor next to him to tell Link, that he should sit down there. “I say that it’s a great idea!”  
The dark-haired man gave Rhett the bottles and placed himself next to him. Rhett opened the first whiskey bottle and sniffed at it. “Mhhh~ It smells like you’ve found something good!” The sheriff took a pull on the bottle and he sighed with pleasure, before he handed it to Link. “This stuff is really great!” Link nodded in agreement after he had also taken a sip.  
Rhett licked his lips and stretched his legs a bit, before he began to speak again: “I remember the first time I had alcohol...We were with a group of friends. And two boys had smuggled some booze out of their parents’ house. Everyone was too afraid to take the first sip. But…” Rhett stopped for a moment to grin at Link. “...there was a very cute girl in the group that I was interested in. So I tried to impress her by taking a huge gulp. Well...I almost puked after that!”  
Both men laughed for a moment, until Rhett grabbed the bottle again to take another sip. “So, what was the stupidest thing you ever did to impress a girl?” Link shook his head and crossed his leg, while he looked into the flames. “Nothing.” “Awww, come on, man! I told you my story. Now it’s your turn!” Rhett poked Link in the arm, which made the other one flinch a bit. But Link just shook his head again and brushed with his fingers through his hair. “There is nothing to tell, Rhett.” The blonde man raised his eyebrow in question and looked at Link. “How can there be nothing to tell? Do you never had a girlfriend?”  
Link snickered a bit, but kept his glance on the flames. “Actually...no. I hadn’t”  
“Come on, Link. Stop messing with me. I know you have to have some experience with the ladies.”  
Now it was Link’s turn to look asking at Rhett. “Why would you think that?” “I saw you with Christy on the festival. And the other ladies seemed to be all over you as well!”  
“I was just trying to be nice to Christy. And I hoped that it would boost her confidence a bit. That doesn’t mean, that I had anything with her or another woman.” Rhett sighed deeply and took another gulp from the bottle, before he ruffled his hair. “I thought we were gonna be honest to each other…” he mumbled to himself, but Link seemed to catch it anyway.  
“Rhett...I just...I don’t want to scare you away or something.”  
Rhett looked at Link again and studied his worried face for a moment, before he smiled at him. “You can’t scare me away. I thought I made that clear earlier.” Link took a deep breath and scratched his head a bit while he looked away. Rhett was about to say that he didn’t need to talk about it if he didn’t want, when Link spoke again.  
“I...I like men.”  
Rhett was still looking at Link, but his facial expression turned into confusion again. “What do you mean you like-?” He didn’t need to finish his sentence, because the way Link was blushing answered Rhett’s question a bit. “Oh!...oh you mean...like...in a...romantic way…?” Link nodded but kept his head low. Rhett was unable to read his face, so he just looked back to the fire.  
“So...did you do something stupid to impress a boy, then?”  
“...are you serious?”  
“Don’t tell me that you don’t even had a boyfriend-!”  
“I-...I did, but...are you not grossed out or something?”  
Rhett turned his head again to see a disbelieving look on Link’s face. But the sheriff shook his head. “Nah, why should I? People can be attracted to everything on this earth! Heck, I had someone in town who wanted to marry a goat!” Link opened his mouth and stared at Rhett for a couple of seconds, until he burst out into laughter. Rhett wasn’t able to suppress his own laugh, so it took them awhile until both of them had calmed down again.  
“Oh man...you’re the best, Rhett. I was...I was so afraid to tell you about it….” Rhett put his hand on Link’s head and ruffled through his hair. “Don’t be afraid of telling me anything, okay? I will not start to hate you, no matter what you do!” Link snickered again and nodded, while he tried to straighten his hair. “Okay....”  
“So...what’s the story?”  
Link took another gulp from the bottle and started to turn it in his hands, while he relived his memory. “There was one really cute guy. We became friends, but...I always had a crush on him. Stevie encouraged me to go drinking with him, so I could ask him about his feelings for me.” Link started to giggle and looked at Rhett again. “Well...he did tell me about his feelings. For Stevie! He had a huge crush on my sister and neither of us had noticed it. Gosh, it was so embarrassing…” Rhett chortled a bit before he patted Link’s shoulder.  
“Well...at least you tried, right?” “Yeah. And he was an idiot anyway. I don’t know how I could fell for him in the first place!”  
Rhett bit his lip and looked at the half empty bottle in Link’s hand, while he asked his next question. “How did you...I mean...when did you find out that you liked guys?” The dark-haired man placed his finger contemplatively on his chin and answered: “I don’t know...I think, I was...15? Or rather 16? Yeah, somewhere around that time.”  
“And...how did you figure it out?”  
“When a friend of mine kissed me accidentally.”  
“What?” Rhett crossed his arms in front of his chest and grinned at Link. “How can you kiss someone accidentally?” Link took another sip and explained: “We were on a party and he wasn’t sober anymore, when we finally went home. I promised him before that he could sleep in my house since his parents’ were really strict. What I didn’t expect was that he brought a girl with him. So while they wanted to have some fun, I was in the next room and tried to get some rest. Gosh, I was so glad that Stevie wasn’t home that night…”  
Link took a break to snicker, while he handed Rhett the bottle. The sheriff swallowed a bit from the whiskey and continued to watch Link, while he proceeded the story.  
“When my friend came back from the outhouse after doing his business, he went into the wrong room. So instead of crawling into the bed with his girl, he ended up lying next to me. I was already half asleep when he turned my head around and started to kiss me! And what can I say?...I really liked it. But he caught wind of what he was doing a few moments into it and apologized over and over. I never told him what I had felt in that moment, but it was something that I had never experienced with a girl before, that’s for sure.”  
Link shrugged and grabbed some firewood to put it into the fireplace, while Rhett thought about his story. “Wow. So at that point you started to date men?” “Well, it’s not that easy to just start to date boys. I only told Stevie about it but after someone else found out about it, I was made fun of a lot. It’s not something everyone should know. But yeah, I eventually found someone who also liked me. Even though it didn’t last long. Probably because he wasn’t looking for something serious but just for some fun.”  
Rhett stared at Link with wide eyes and couldn’t prevent his mouth from gaping open. “So you...had also…?” Link gave him a look of inquiry and smiled when he figured out, what Rhett wanted to ask. “You mean, if I had sex with him?” “H-how did you know that I was about to ask that?”  
“Your blushing face is telling me everything! But of course I had sex with him. We were in a relationship after all.” Rhett bit his lip again and turned his head to hide his red face. “I’m sorry if that question seemed rude. I just...I couldn’t really imagine...like...doing this stuff with a girl is so...natural. But with a dude...like...isn’t it painful…?”  
Link held his stomach and fell on his back, as he burst into laughter. It took him a while until he was able to speak again, which made it even more awkward for Rhett. “Haha...I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to laugh...but just...The way you asked that question was really cute. I didn’t know that you could be so shy!” “Ah shut up...I won’t ask you anything again!”  
Rhett pouted and looked back at the flames. But Link sat up straight again and grabbed his face to turn it back to him. An apologizing smile appeared on his lips, when he said: “I’m really sorry! I’m just not used to talk about this stuff. Normally people are either disgusted or are already all over me.”  
Rhett grinned a bit and replied: “What a poser!” Link giggled again before he answered him seriously. “It is painful if you don’t do it right of course. But believe me, it can also be a lot of fun!” “Sounds like men and women aren’t that different after all, hm?” “Not when it comes to certain things~” Rhett nodded a bit and grabbed the bottle of whiskey to empty it with the last gulp. He looked to the other one and asked: “Do you want to open that one, too?” Link gave him a provoking look and answered: “Why not? I’m curious what kind of secrets you will reveal, if get you drunk!”  
“I won’t get drunk from this stuff so easily, believe me!”


	15. Blue Sapphires

It took them almost an hour until the second bottle was half empty. They had talked about Rhett’s family a lot and the sheriff had enjoyed every minute of the conversation. After Rhett had answered Link’s last question, he had looked up into the sky to examine the stars above him. Link had placed his head on Rhett’s shoulder and the sheriff was sure that he had fallen asleep, when he suddenly spoke: “I’m a bit tired. But I don’t want to go to sleep now.”  
Rhett chuckled. “Why not?”  
“Because this evening is so nice right now…”  
The blonde man didn’t reply to that even though he felt the same. It was pleasant to talk to someone about so many different things without getting bored at all. The sheriff sighed and was about to suggest that they should head to bed, when Link raised his head and said: “How about we sing something? Maybe that will dispel my sleepiness!” Rhett laughed a bit and stood up, before he stretched himself a bit. “Sounds like a good idea. But let’s not try to compose something new tonight, okay? Because my brain can’t handle that right now…!”  
“I don’t care what we’re going to sing. As long as I can hear your beautiful voice, I’m fine with that!” The blonde man shook his head in amusement and grabbed his guitar, before he sat down next to Link again.  
It seemed that Link was right about the singing and his sleepiness. The more songs they sang, the more he looked awake. But Rhett could feel that the alcohol was slowing his own movements. Sometimes he would play the wrong note or his tongue would say the wrong word. But neither of them cared and they just laughed about it. While they emptied the second whiskey bottle, Rhett found himself lost in his thoughts again.  
He wished that this night would never end. He hadn’t realized before how good it felt to have someone by his side. Back in Buies Creek he would often spend his nights all by himself in his house.  
Sometimes busy with work.  
Sometimes just alone with his thoughts.  
Even though he knew that he had a bunch of friends, he never felt as connected to them as he felt to Link. The more he learnt about that guy, the more he could enjoy his presence. Link was filling a void in Rhett’s life, that he didn’t notice had been empty until now.  
“You’ve been playing the same chord for the last couple of minutes. Are you already asleep?” Link’s voice interrupted Rhett’s thoughts and he looked at his friend. “Sorry. I was kinda spaced out...which song would you like to sing next?”  
Link shrugged and placed his head back on Rhett’s shoulder, before he closed his eyes. “Anything is fine. Just play whatever you feel like...” Rhett smiled down at him and started to play some melodies. He felt like he was about to get lost in his thoughts again, when he heard a soft voice.

 

_“Like a river flows  
Surely to the sea~”_

 

Rhett hadn’t even noticed that he was playing a song and not just some random notes, until Link had began to sing the lyrics. His voice was so enchanting that Rhett just kept playing, while he tried to remember the lyrics himself. 

 

_“Darling so it goes  
Some things are meant to be~”_

 

Link raised his head from Rhett’s shoulder, but kept his eyes on his hands. Rhett noticed out of the corner of his eye, that the black-haired man was clasping his shaking hands nervously.  
Suddenly Rhett remembered the lyrics to the song and he hold his breath in anticipation, because he wondered if Link would sing the next lines also. 

_“Take my hand,  
Take my whole life too~”_

 

Rhett’s heart was beating fast when he glanced at Link. He was surprised to see that the other man was staring at him with a melting gaze. The blue sapphires seem to look directly into Rhett’s soul, when Link sang the next line.

 

_“For I can't help falling in love with you~”_

 

A shiver ran down Rhett’s spine when the dark-haired man averted his gaze after singing the last word. Rhett’s fingers were trembling when he tried to continue to play the melody on the guitar. The sheriff could see that Link was biting his lip while he avoided looking at Rhett. Without thinking Rhett started to sing the last part of the song, while his eyes focused on the flames in front of him.

 

_“Like a river flows_  
_Surely to the sea~_  
_Darling so it goes_  
_Some things are meant to be~”_

 

When Rhett started to sing the next verse, he could hear the beautiful harmony when Link’s voice joined in. A smile appeared on Rhett’s lips like it always did, when they start to sing together.

_“Take my hand,  
Take my whole life too~”_

 

Rhett glanced at Link with an affectionate look and he could see the look of expectancy in the blue eyes. In those pretty blue eyes, which darted between Rhett’s eyes and lips, waiting for the next verse. Rhett wasn’t surprised, that Link didn’t join him for the next verse.  
He knew that he dark-haired man wanted to hear these words from Rhett alone this time.

 

_“For I can't help falling in love with you~”_

 

Link’s hands had found a way to Rhett’s face and they rested gently on his cheeks. Rhett continued to stare into Link’s eyes, while he noticed that the shorter man was inching closer.  
His heart was racing when he saw that Link’s lips were moving, while he sang the last verse together with Rhett. 

 

_“For I can't help…~”_

 

The reflection of the fire in Link’s eyes was slowly replaced with Rhett’s own face, the closer Link came. His smile appeared again on his own lips, when he saw that Link was also smiling. He started to close his eyes, before they sang the next part.

 

_“...falling in love…~”_

 

Rhett’s fingers had stopped playing the guitar, because he had forgotten about anything else besides the man in front of him. He could feel Link’s breath on his own lips, when they both whispered the last two words of the song to each other.

 

_“...with you~”_

 

Link closed the last inch between them and Rhett felt goosebumps all over his skin, as soon as their lips met. The kiss was shy and soft, but Rhett felt that his body was screaming for more immediately. The feeling of Link’s lips against his own was so incredible, that Rhett was sure it was just a dream. But then he felt Link’s thumbs starting to caress his face in a gentle motion.  
It couldn’t be a dream.  
But if it was, Rhett decided that he never wanted to wake up.  
He was about to open his mouth to taste more of Link, when the other man slowly broke the kiss. Rhett blinked his eyes with a dazed expression on his face and saw that Link was looking at him with an apologizing look in his eyes.  
“I-...I’m sorry….I didn’t mean to catch you off-guard, but-” Without caring for the instrument, Rhett threw the guitar to the side and put his hand in Link’s neck to pull him closer again. He also didn’t wait for Link to finish his whispered sentence, when he placed his lips on top of Link’s for the second kiss. The sheriff turned his body in Link’s direction and bent over him slowly without breaking the kiss, so that Link was forced to place his back on the ground. Rhett was still kneeling above the other man’s body, supported by his free hand, while the other one was still in Link’s neck, when he broke the kiss for a moment.  
“Don’t apologize…” he whispered against Link’s lips, while the other man looked at him with a wondering glimpse.  
“...I don’t want to hear you talk right now when I can taste your lips instead~” The sheriff continued before his lips found Link’s once more. Link replied with a sigh of pleasure and Rhett opened his smiling mouth a bit to caress Link’s lips with his tongue. The other man opened his own lips to grant Rhett access to his mouth, before his own tongue started to play with Rhett’s tongue.  
The taste of Link’s mouth was everything Rhett had expected and yet nothing he could have imagined before. He tasted the strong flavor of the whiskey, a slight hint of the spicy dinner and the sweetness of Link himself. Everything combined created a mix that made Rhett dizzy the longer he hold the kiss. His thoughts shifted to his neck suddenly, when he felt Link’s finger were caressing his skin. This light touch was enough to send little sparks through his body and Rhett wanted to drown completely in this feeling.  
But he had to break the kiss again eventually, when both of them needed to fill their lungs with air again. Rhett breathed hard against Link’s lip while he held his gaze, amazed by his beautiful eyes. Link raised his hand and brushed some strands of hair out of Rhett’s face, before he asked in a breathy voice: “Could you lay down for me?” The sheriff’s eyebrow was raised in question, but the grin on his face didn’t disappear.  
“Only if I get another kiss from you~” Link giggled a bit before he granted Rhett’s wish. The kiss didn’t last as long as the other ones, but Rhett figured it had something to do with Link’s request. So he sat up straight again and put the guitar out of the way, before he laid himself down on the blanket next to the fire pit, where he had planned to sleep later.  
Link didn’t waste a second and was straddling him the moment his back was placed on the ground. The dark-haired man grinned down at him and Rhett could feel that his heart was racing. Rhett brushed with his hands through Link’s hair, while his friend bent down to kiss him again. But unlike the longer kisses before these ones were shorter, yet still as passionate as the first one.  
Link’s left hand was caressing his beard, while the other hand was dancing across his skin next to his collar. After a while Link’s lips started to wander over his face and down to his neck, as Rhett closed his eyes. He left a trail of kisses on Rhett’s skin, which made Rhett shiver in pleasure.  
It was in the moment when Link decided to nibble on Rhett’s earlobe, that the sheriff heard a softly moan from the other man. He felt that Link’s hand had started to unbutton his collar slowly, while he could also feel something else.  
Something hard was pressing into his crotch.  
He gasped for air in surprise and his eyes opened again, while he felt that Link’s hand and mouth stopped at the same time. His heart was still beating fast while he tried to sort the questions that were floating in his head. The other man raised his head a bit to observe Rhett with a worried look on his face.  
“I...I’m sorry. I was so getting into it, that I...kinda forgot everything. But I should’ve asked you first: How...well...how far would you like to go?” Rhett stared at Link with a puzzled expression on his face, while he tried to think about a respond. But all he could think about were the lips that Link was biting in this moment and the blue eyes that looked down on him.  
Rhett stretched out his fingers to search for Link’s and clasped his hand, once he had found it. A sheepish smile appeared on Rhett’s face, when he answered him: “I trust you, Link. And I don’t want this to end right now.” Link looked at him with an angelic grin on his lips and bent down to him again.  
Before their lips found each other again, Rhett heard Link whispering: “I don’t want this to end, ever.”


	16. Something More

A shaft of sunlight was shining into Rhett’s face, which woke him up slowly. He blinked his eyes and averted his face once he saw the bright light. Rhett took a deep breath and held his dazzled eyes closed for another moment, while he tried to figure out where the strong smell came from. It was burning wood mixed with something else...was it coffee?  
The blonde man opened his eyes again as slowly as before and tried to shake off the sleepy feeling of his mind and body. He saw the burning fire within arm reach from him and a shirtless man next to it. Rhett blinked his eyes again and tried to focus on Link’s face, while the other man was pouring coffee into a mug.  
“Good morning~” A cheerful voice reached his ears and he saw that Link turned his head towards him with a warm smile. “Would you like some coffee?” Rhett nodded a bit and tried to sit up straight, but when he did that, he felt that his muscles were a bit stiff and that he had a slight headache. Link noticed that Rhett was massaging his temples, so he asked: “Do you have a headache?”, while he poured more coffee into a second mug. Rhett nodded again.  
“Yeah...seems like it.” The sheriff was surprised to hear his hoarse voice and cleared his throat, before he turned around to take the mug from Link. When he did that he noticed that he himself was shirtless as well, but before he could think about that any more his fingers brushed against Link’s, while his eyes caught something else.  
There were dozens of dark red spots all over Link’s neck and chest.  
Hickies.  
The marks managed to bring Rhett out of his tired-fuzzy thoughts and back into the memories from the last night. He remembered the heat, the moans, the pleasure and all the things Link did to him and vice versa.  
Rhett didn’t notice that his hands were still on top of Link’s, while both of them held the cup. It was Link’s ambiguous smile, which brought Rhett back into the reality and out of his own thoughts. “Is something wrong?” the dark-haired man asked in a soft voice and Rhett shook his head, while he took the mug from him.  
“No…” he answered quietly and took a sip from the mug while his eyes tried to avoid Link’s gaze.  
But the other man could clearly tell what was going through Rhett’s mind as he asked: “Do you....regret it…?”  
“What?” Rhett asked with caution and gave Link a quick glimpse. The dark-haired man brushed through his hair and sighed a bit.  
“What happened last night. Between us, I mean. Do you regret that you did it?” Rhett bit his lips and looked pondering into his mug. The dark liquid reflected his face and he saw his own lips moving, when he asked: “Do you?” His eyes traveled over Link’s body again and stopped at his face on which Rhett saw a bewitching smile.  
“Absolutely not. That was probably the best night in my life. And I’m not over exaggerating, Rhett.” This time Rhett was able to hold the gaze and looked deeply into the blue sapphires across from him to find his answer to Link’s question. He wasn’t surprised when a shy grin appeared on his own face, before he responded in a soft voice: “How could I regret something so breathtaking?”  
Link observed him with bright eyes and licked his lips, before he asked: “So...would you do it again?”  
“No.”  
The smile of the smaller man turned into a disappointed face and his eyes showed how hurt he was by that answer. “Oh...o...okay…I mean...I can understand that something like that might be-”  
“Not with that much alcohol. My head still hurts like crazy! And I prefer to enjoy something like that with all my senses…” Rhett answered with the typical grin on his face, when he saw that Link got his little joke. Link pouted and kicked Rhett’s foot lightly with his own.  
“You idiot...I thought for a moment that you were serious!” Rhett giggled and said: “I know I can be a jerk when I’m hungry...so how about some breakfast?” “I don’t think you deserve any food right now!”  
Rhett placed his mug to the side and grabbed Link’s hand instead. He raised it to his mouth and murmured: “I think, I deserve the best breakfast in the whole world after last night…” He started to place light kisses on Link’s index finger, until he reached the tip. Without breaking the eye contact, the blonde man put it lightly between his lips while he sucked at it, all with an innocent look in his eyes.  
He could see Link starting to blush as he swallowed a bit, before he answered with a slight grin: “O-okay. Maybe you’re right about that…”

 

“I feel so stupid, Link.”  
“Why? It’s really not that hard. You have seen me doing it a couple of times now, right?”  
“Yeah...but as you can see, I still don’t know how you’re doing it.”  
“You just need to be quick. And don’t be afraid to make your hands wet.”  
“They ARE already wet.”  
“And you need to grab it really tight.”  
“But it’s so slippery!” Rhett stood upright again and brushed with his wet fingers through his hair, before he looked over to Link. His friend had an encouraging look on his face and smiled at Rhett. “Come on. Just try it again. You can do it, I know it!” Rhett sighed heavily and bend down again.  
His eyes searched the water for any kind of movement while he tried to be as still as possible. When he saw a fish he grabbed next to his feet into the water, just to miss it again.  
“Gosh...this is so frustrating.” “You can’t just try to grab it where you see it. You need to know where it will be in the next moment and then reach for that point.” “How should I know where the stupid fish will swim next?” “Just look at it’s pattern, Rhett.”  
The blonde cowboy looked back into the water and tried to focus on the animals for a while. He and Link had decided to get some fresh fish while they were still at this pond. But Link had suggested that he could teach Rhett how to catch something alive with his bare hands. The sheriff felt like a complete idiot during this task, because he hadn’t caught anything so far.  
Suddenly he reached into the water again and to his surprise his fingers wrapped around something very slippery. He raised his hands while he hold onto the fidgeting thing and he grinned widely, when he saw the fish in his hands.  
“Link!! I got one!! I got a fi-!” The excitement as well as the fighting fish in his hand made him lose his balance and the blonde man fell into the water.  
The fish swam away as the sheriff tried to sit up, while he coughed up a bit of water. Rhett could hear the hearty laugh from the other man and brushed the wet hair out of his face, before he looked up at Link. The smaller man was holding his belly while he tried to wipe away his tears of laughter. “Th-that...was...hil-hilarious…!” He managed to say before bursting out into laughter again. Rhett sighed deeply again and looked down at himself. The water was only knee deep, but his jeans were completely soaked with water thanks to his fall. He was glad about his decision to leave his shirt at the dry ground next to the fire pit.  
When Link had finally calmed himself he reached out to Rhett and the sheriff had a mischievous smile on his lips, as he grabbed Link’s hand. A second later the other man was pulled into the pond next to Rhett and it was his turn to laugh out loud. “That’s what you get for laughing!” Link also coughed out some water, before he tackled Rhett from behind with a wide grin on his face. “I was trying to help you!” “You were laughing at me, you jerk!”  
The sheriff fell back into the water and both of them scuffled a bit, until they were out of breath. Rhett was still holding Link’s wrists to stop the other man, while he knelt next to him in the water. Both were grinning from ear to ear and Rhett found himself focused on Link’s eyes again, after he had observed the water drops running across his face.  
He pulled the dark-haired man a bit closer to him and his grin turned into seductive smile, while his gaze wandered down to Link’s lips. “You look really good when you’re this wet~”  
Link just giggled as an answer and responded overjoyed to the kiss, before both of them closed their eyes.

 

Rhett’s gaze was fixated on the horizon while he tried to figure out when the sun would set completely. His body moved in sync with Rey’s body, while the horse galloped at a moderate pace.  
He sighed and pushed his cowboy hat out of his face before he laid his hand back on Link’s. The other man had put his arms around Rhett’s waist and Link had grabbed his own wrist in front of Rhett’s stomach to secure himself. The sheriff could feel the dark-haired head placed on his back, but he hadn’t heard anything from Link in a while.  
“You’re not sleeping, are you?”  
“...No~....”  
“Hey, come on. Don’t sleep now or you will be awake the whole night!”  
“...sounds like a complaint….just think about all the good stuff we could do at night…~”  
The other man murmured against Rhett’s shirt, but the blonde man didn’t respond to that. Instead he started to think about the last night with Link and all the things that had happened between them, while the other man seemed to doze off again. He had already thought about some of the stuff after their breakfast, but with every time their lips had met during the day, Rhett had found new questions in his mind.  
It was true what he had said in the morning. The night with Link was so amazing for him that he was still thinking back to it. Of course he had been a bit scared and nervous at one point, but sleeping with this guy made him realize something. It made him realize how complete his life felt when he was with Link.  
While his thumb caressed the back of the other man’s hand, Rhett thought back to his youth. He was at no time interested in men. He had heard of those people and even met a guy or two who didn’t want a girlfriend, but he had never thought about it too much. Because he was sure that he was just like the other guys in his town. He had dated some cute girls in the past, but the older he got the more he had noticed something.  
It didn’t feel right.  
The little crushes he had on the females never turned into something even close to the affection that they felt towards him. So most of his relations broke up when he was too tired of acting dishonestly around the girls.  
But everything was so different with Link.  
Rhett knew it had taken him a while to acknowledge the fact that both of them were friends. The more he learned about the other man, the more he felt like he needed to know every little detail of his life. And Rhett wanted to be a part of that life.  
However after spending the last night with Link, he felt like he had already become that. The only thing the sheriff wasn’t completely sure about was what both of them were at this point.  
Friends? Lovers? Something in between?  
But when the sheriff intertwined his hands with Link’s, he smiled at the horizon and thought to himself that it didn’t even matter.  
Who cared what they were as long as they were happy with it?


	17. Late Night Thoughts

It was in the middle of the night when Rhett stared up into the night sky. The stars seemed to sparkle brighter than usual and had caught Rhett’s attention. His breathing had finally calmed down so that Link’s head was moving only a tiny bit up and down. The sheriff’s hand was loosely tangled in the other man’s hair and Link’s cheek laid on top of Rhett’s bare chest.  
The fire pit next to the men was still bright enough that Rhett was able to see all the new dark red spots on Link’s neck, when he looked down at him again. He had marked Link during their latest make out session, which had ended a couple of minutes ago with great sex. Now Rhett was just laying on his back staring down at his partner, while his hand played with the dark hair.  
“Don’t you think you should probably cut it a bit shorter?” “Hm...?” Link had tried to sleep and was now slowly raising his head to look at the sheriff. “What should I cut?” “Your hair.” Rhett smiled at him and held a strand of hair between his fingers.  
“It is so long. I think you would look better with short hair.” Link grinned sleepily at him and folded his arms on top of Rhett’s chest, before he placed his head on them. “You mean with hair like yours?” A grin appeared on Rhett’s face. “Yeah, why not? My hair looks good, right?” “Yes, because I cut it for you!” “Ah shut up. It also looked good before that…!”  
Link’s gaze fixated on the fire pit, which was almost burned down, while he replied: “Oh yeah. Your hair looked amazing when I met you…” “You paid attention to my hair at that moment?” Link looked back at Rhett and smiled softly at him. “Of course. I paid attention to everything that involved you or your look back then.”  
“Oh...so that was why you knew exactly how to cut my hair in Cokesbury?” The sheriff asked with a surprised look on his face. Link nodded. “Yes. I loved your hair on the night of the festival, so I tried not to forget that image in my mind.”  
Rhett’s fingers started to caress Link’s bare back, while another question came to his mind. He looked into the blue sapphires and asked himself if he wanted to change the topic to something more important so suddenly. But when he saw the warm smile and the bewitching glance in Link’s eyes, he just asked the question.  
“Link...when...when did you started to...get interested in me?”  
His heart raced a bit because he still didn’t manage to say the words “love me” to his friend. Link raised his eyebrows and hid a shy smile on his face by looking away. “I can’t tell you. You would think that I’m stupid.”  
“I already think that, don’t worry.” Rhett said jokingly and felt a slap on his belly, which made him chuckle. “Just tell me. I’m really curious.”  
Link sat upright and stretched his body a bit, before he looked down at Rhett. “....from the moment I saw you.” “Ah come on…” “I’m serious, Rhett!”  
He gave him a bashful smile and looked into the sky, before he continued. “Before I entered the saloon I had seen you on the street. You had greeted the people in town in such a charming way that I was curious who you were. And not to forget your look.”  
Link sighed a bit and closed his eyes for a moment. “You looked so beautiful in so many ways that it still takes my breath away, when I think back to it.”  
When Rhett heard the whispered voice above him and saw the stars behind Link’s head, he felt his heart race again. His face started to blush and he was so flattered by Link’s words, that he couldn’t even reply. But Link didn’t seem to wait for a reply, because he continued after a moment.  
“I mean...it didn’t help, that you were the sheriff. Because I knew that I needed to get the wanted list from you. And when I noticed how you stared at me…” Link opened his eyes again and gave him a steady look. “...I knew it would mean even more trouble. Because you didn’t like me.” Rhett bit his lips and caressed Link’s arm, before he answered: “...it’s true that I didn’t like you. But to be fair, you did everything you could to annoy me!” Link giggled a bit and intertwined his hand with Rhett’s.  
“I was just testing you. I wanted to see your reactions. Your emotions. How you would look when you’re jealous. Angry. Disappointed. Because you just seemed like a perfect guy. And I wanted to see your other side, before I had to go.”  
Rhett tried to remember his interactions with Link back when he was in town. It seemed like so much time had past since then and he could only smile, when he thought back to all their fights. “Well...I think you saw enough from my bad side, don’t you think?”  
“Yeah...but I also saw a lot of your good side. Especially in the last few weeks.” Rhett felt like he lost himself in the blue sapphires again as he saw the affectionate look in Link’s eyes. When he replied to Link his voice was only a whisper.  
“That’s only because you were so kind to me in the first place. You helped me. You cared for me. You even…”  
There it was again.  
The moment in which Rhett just wanted to say “made me fall in love with you”, but he just couldn’t. It felt so natural and right when he sang it to him last night. But just saying it out loud was impossible for him. Was it because he was still unsure about his feelings for Link? Or because he didn’t want to be rejected? Whatever it was, it made his throat dry and erased every word from his brain in an instant.  
Link looked Rhett over as if he knew what he was struggling with, but then he asked: “What made you change your mind about me? I mean…” The dark haired man grinned and lifted their combined hands to his mouth to place some light kisses on the back of Rhett’s hand.  
“...why are you allowing this? You never said you liked men. But you still slept with me. And you seemed to enjoy it!” Link said the last part with a bit of pride in his voice and Rhett couldn’t help but return his grin.  
“I’m pretty sure that I still don’t like men in the way that you like them.”  
“But why-?”  
“But I like you, Link.”  
The other man looked at Rhett with wide eyes and his grin turned into a surprised face. It was the honesty in Rhett’s voice that had froze Link for a moment and made him blush in the next one. “However...I still think that you should cut your hair. It’s really getting too long.” Rhett continued, just to break the tension between them.  
Link replied with a light tap on the stomach again, before he leaned down to kiss the blonde man, still unable to say anything.

 

Rhett opened his eyes slowly when his ears caught a scratching sound. He blinked a few times, tried to remember his confusing dream and then sat up to awaken completely. His hand brushed a few strands of hair out of his face, while his eyes observed his surrounding a bit. The sun had already risen and it took Rhett a few moments to figure out where the sound came from.  
He stared over to Link, who was sitting in front of a large rock. On top of the rock was a mirror which Link used to examine his face, before he continued to shave it. But it wasn’t the sight of Link shaving his face, which made Rhett speechless in that moment. “Wh...what did you…?”  
The dark haired man turned his face around to give Rhett a surprised look. “Oh, you’re already awake! I thought I could wake you up with some coffee, but I wasn’t fast enough apparently…” “What has happened to your hair, Link!?” Link looked back at the mirror and grinned a bit, before he raised his blade again to continue shaving.  
“I cut it. You told me that I would look better with shorter hair. So there you go.”  
Rhett looked disbelieving at Link and studied his new hairstyle. His friend had cut the sides really short and also trimmed some of the hair on top of his head. The haircut was similar to Rhett’s, but while Rhett’s hair went straight up when it was styled with pomade, Link’s was parted more to the side. Rhett was still speechless when Link cleaned his face with a bowl full of water.  
“Do you not like it?” He asked without looking at Rhett. “Are you joking? You look incredible!” Link snickered and dried his wet face with a towel. “I’m just asking because you didn’t say anything.” “Well...you made me speechless with this surprise…!”  
Rhett was still observing Link when he put out his hand towards the smaller man. “Will you come here for a second?” Link looked wondering at Rhett, before he placed his shaving tools next to the rock and went over to Rhett. “What do you want?” The dark haired man asked with a familiar smile on his face as he squatted down in front of Rhett. The sheriff placed his hand on the other man’s head and brushed gently through Link’s hair. His green eyes followed his own movements, while the blue sapphires studied Rhett’s face.  
“I can’t believe it...you just cut your hair because...I told you to do it…?” Link’s smile grew wider when he replied to him. “I don’t care about my hair, Rhett. But I care about you. And about your opinion of my look.”  
Rhett’s eyes found Link’s and both men stared at each other for a moment, before the sheriff placed his hand in Link’s neck. A quick glance from Link at Rhett’s lips was the only invitation Rhett needed from the other man.  
So he pulled Link’s face towards him in a smooth motion, before he kissed him passionately. When they parted Rhett grinned at Link and murmured against his lips: “I really appreciate that! Thank you, Link!”  
Link snickered a bit and stood up in a smooth motion, before he replied to Rhett. “I hope you will also appreciate to get a haircut from me! Because your beard is getting a bit too long for my taste!” Rhett licked his lips a bit and nodded with a smile. “Of course! I don’t want to miss any kisses from you in the future just because my beard is too long.”  
Link laughed as an answer and went back to his shaving utensils to get them ready.


	18. Chalybeate Springs

The sun was shining down at the two cowboys who sat on the back of Rey. Rhett could already see the outlines from the town on the horizon.  
Chalybeate Springs.  
He sighed softly and felt that Link was raising his head, which had laid on Rhett’s back previously. “What is wrong, Rhett?” Rhett shook his head a bit and focused on the horizon while he answered: “Nothing. I was just thinking.”  
“About what?”  
“I think we should get off the horse before we’re arriving in the city. Two men on a horse like this isn’t-”  
“I know what you mean. And I agree~” Link interrupted Rhett before he placed his head back between Rhett’s shoulder blades. “Which means that I will savor the remaining minutes to the fullest, where I can stay so close to you.”  
Rhett could feel that Link’s grip around his own wrist tightened in front of Rhett’s stomach for a moment, when he pressed himself closer to the Sheriff. Rhett was lost in thoughts again, when he realized that he and Link wouldn’t be able to show their affection to each other once they were in town. 

 

A few miles away from the city was the place where Link got off from the horse, while he told Rhett to stay on it. “People will think we’re crazy if none of us is riding it.” He explained his decision before they made their way into town. They could immediately see that this was indeed not a ghost town like Cokesbury and Rhett was glad to see some other people.  
Once they passed the entrance gate, Rhett also got off the horse and held the reins, while he walked alongside Link. He greeted a few ladies with a short nod before he asked the dark haired man: “So...what is your plan?” “I would say we visit the saloon first. It’s always the best place to get some information if you’re new in town. And we also need to sleep somewhere.” Rhett agreed to Link’s plan and they looked around to find the saloon.  
It didn’t take them too long until they finally arrived at the building. Rhett noticed that it was in a bad shape, which was confusing to him. Normally a saloon was the best running business in town. One of the doors was askew and some windows were broken.  
He was about to ask Link if the saloon could be abandoned, when he heard a loud burst and saw that something was thrown through one of the windows. The glass splintered everywhere and Rhett had to calm Rey so the horse wouldn’t run away in fear, while he heard Link gasping next to him. “Oh my god...is...is that a man!?”  
The sheriff saw that Link was sprinting towards the ‘thing’ on the ground which was indeed a human being. But while Link kneeled down next to the injured man, Rhett also noticed that no one else really minded what was going on. The people from the other buildings and on the street acted like they hadn’t seen anything and only glanced at the scene right before their eyes. Rhett walked to Link and looked over his shoulder to see that the man tried to sit up straight.  
“Argh-! My waist…! It...it hurts like the devil...!” He murmured with clenched teeth while he had his eyes closed. “Yeah. You have some pretty bad wounds….What happened to you, Sir?” Link asked in a calm voice and sustained him a bit. The man coughed and Rhett saw that the man was bleeding from the wounds of the shattered glass in his body.  
“I...I tried to….defend...my…-” He coughed again and Link pushed his cowboy hat out of his face, before he gently grabbed the man by his shoulders. “Where do you live? We’ll bring you home and treat your wounds, okay?” The man nodded a bit and pointed in the direction of his home. Rhett helped Link by supporting the man, while they walked down the street. 

 

Link knocked on the door of the man’s home, who had introduced himself as Jim Stevenson. A woman with curly, reddish hair opened the door and looked asking at Link. “Hello? Can I help you?” Link drew his hat and implied a bow, before he said: “Yes, Ma'am. We have found this man in a very bad condition and he told us, that he lives here.” “Karen…!” The man said in a hoarse voice, before he coughed again.  
The woman looked past Link and gasped, before she put her hands in front of her mouth. “JIM! Oh god, what happened!?” She ran over to Jim who had his arm around Rhett’s shoulder, because he couldn’t stand by himself. “Ma’am, if you would allow us to go inside we could treat his wounds.” Link suggested and the woman nodded immediately. “That would be great! Thank you!” Rhett put Jim’s arm around Link’s shoulder when the dark haired man was next to him again, before he said: “I’ll follow you inside as soon as I have tied up Rey.”  
“You can guide your horse around our house! We have a paddock in the back. Just tell my daughter that she should put your horse in it.” “Thank you!” Rhett said with a smile, before he brought Rey in the direction that the woman had pointed to.  
When the sheriff walked around the house he found himself in front of a big paddock. A couple of horses were already inside the fenced area and he saw a little girl standing in front of the gate. She was feeding some grass to a white horse and Rhett noticed that the girl had the same reddish hair color that the woman also had.  
As he came closer the girl turned around and looked startled at Rhett, but he pushed his hat out of his face and put on a friendly smile. “Good day, young lady! Your mother told me to come here to bring my horse into the paddock.” “And who are you, Mister?”  
Rhett bowed down a bit and answered: “My name is Rhett. And this is Rey.” He pointed to his horse before he continued: “We brought a man named Jim home. Is he your father?” The girl nodded and replied: “Yes, he is my father! If mum and dad trust you, I think I can trust you as well! You can bring your horse over here, Mister. I will take good care of him!”  
“Thank you!” Rhett brought his horse over to the girl and handed her the reins. She opened the gate and brought the horse inside the paddock, after Rhett had removed his and Link’s belonging from the horse’s back.

 

Rhett only had to wait a short moment before the front door was opened for him again. The woman had rushed to the door, as soon as he had knocked and was now letting him in. “Please come in. I hope my daughter didn’t cause any trouble?” Rhett shook his head and entered the house, before he removed his hat and brushed through his hair. “No, she was really helpful. A fine little lady.  
The woman smiled at Rhett and stretched out her hand to greet Rhett properly. “I think, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Karen Stevenson. And the man that you two brought back home is Jim, my husband.” Rhett took her hand and replied: “My name is Rhett McLaughlin.”  
“Nice to meet you, Mister McLaughlin. Your friend Link is already in the living room and tries to help my poor husband.”  
“Please feel free to call me Rhett!”  
“Okay, Rhett.”  
The sheriff followed Karen into the next room and saw Link sitting on a chair next to Jim with a scrutinizing look. The patient sat on another chair next to the table and was shirtless while he held his arm towards Link. Rhett could see a bunch of glass fragments in his skin and also some bruises. Link held a pair of tweezer in his hand and tried to remove the glass as careful as possible, while Rhett put their stuff aside.  
“And? How is it?” Karen asked with a worrying look on her face. “The bleeding wound on his side is already bandaged. The rest shouldn’t be a problem either. It will just take a while. But the alcohol seems to help, right Jim?” The man nodded a bit and smiled at Link and then at Rhett. “Yes. Thank you guys for helping me!”  
Rhett sat down on a chair as well and denied the glass of whiskey that Karen wanted to offer him. “But what happened to you? I mean...it’s not normal that someone flies through a window, right?” Jim shook his head a bit and took the glass with whiskey from his wife. After he had gulped down the liquid, he squinted his eyes for a moment before he answered: “Well...that’s what happens with everyone who is trying to fight for justice…”  
“For justice?” Rhett raised one eyebrow and observed Link, while the dark haired man was still removing the glass fragments carefully. “You two are new in this town, right? Well...we have some guys who are causing a lot of trouble. And whoever is trying to stand against them ends like me...or worse.” Rhett knit his brows and stared at Jim. “And the sheriff doesn’t do anything against them?” Karen came back into the room with a bowl of water and started to clean Jim’s face, when she answered Rhett. “Actually...we don’t have a sheriff anymore. He got too scared and ran away, when the guys shot his marshall.”  
The blonde man leaned back and looked disbelieving at the couple. “Are you serious? He just...left!?” “Why don’t you just chase them out of this town? Or are there too many?” Link asked and examined Jim’s arm one last time, before he put the tweezer away. “No...it’s actually only two guys. But they’re way too dangerous for us!”  
“Only two!?” Rhett and Link exclaimed in unison and glanced at each other for a moment, before Rhett asked: “Who are they? Are they some known criminals?” Jim nodded and answered: “Yeah, kinda. Maybe you’ve heard of the Carson Brothers? John and Zac have been terrorizing our city for a while now.”  
“NO WAY!” Link yelled and jumped up in an instant. Rhett saw that he clenched his fists and was about to storm out, so the sheriff jumped quickly to his feet and managed to grab Link by his arms. “Hey, calm down, Link!”  
“You’ve heard what they said, right!? They’re here, Rhett!”  
Rhett’s grip tightened and he held Link in place, while he looked into his eyes. “Yes, I heard that. But I won’t let you storm headfirst into such a deadly situation!” Link bit his lips and was about to counter, when Jim started to speak again: “Are you guys okay?” “Yes!” Rhett nodded quickly and gave Link one last look, before he let go of him. “It’s just…we were searching for these guys. And we didn’t expect them to be still here.”  
Karen took the bowl with the now dirty water and walked past Rhett and Link, as she replied: “They have taken over the saloon and are sometimes on the street to cause some more trouble. It’s better not to search for such dangerous people.” Jim agreed with his wife and said: “You should really stay away from them.”  
“Well...thanks for the advice. But we will see what we can do about them…” Link answered and glanced out of the window. When Rhett followed his gaze, he saw that the sun was already going down. “Oh wait...if they have taken over the saloon...is there any other establishment in town where we can spend the night?” Rhett asked and looked back at Jim.  
The man grinned at the two cowboys and answered: “How about you stay here overnight? You helped me today and I would like to thank you for that!”


	19. Stay Overnight

The cowboys accepted the offer and Karen even insisted that they should all eat together. Rhett was helping Karen and her daughter Lily preparing the dinner in the kitchen, while Link sat in the living room. Since Jim was doing better, everyone was in a good mood.  
Everyone except Link.  
The blonde man noticed that he was staring out of the window often and didn’t say much when they ate dinner. Lily seemed to be especially excited about the guests and wanted to show Rhett and Link around the house after they finished eating. While Link was already dragged out of the backdoor by her, Rhett brought their belongings into the guestroom that Karen showed him.  
“It isn’t big and we have only one bed, but I hope it is okay for you if one of you sleeps on the couch.” Rhett looked at the small bed and the worn out couch and nodded quickly. “Of course! At least we can sleep inside a house. That’s better than what we’re used to!” 

 

After Rhett walked into the backyard, he saw Link and Lily standing next to the paddock where they fed the same white horse that Rhett had seen before. He stopped for a moment and just observed the two people, until he got lost in thoughts.  
Lily explained something very exciting to the dark haired man and made wild hand gestures, while Link looked at her with a smile on his face. But Rhett knew that he had seen that same smile sometime before. Link’s lips were curled up, but his eyes looked sad and almost a bit lost.  
And suddenly Rhett remembered it.  
It was in the night were they both got drunk.  
The night of their first kiss and everything that followed after that.  
He remembered looking up at Link, still dealing with the aftermath of his orgasm, while the other man had kneeled above him. Link’s hair had hung in front of his eyes and was a total mess from all the sweating.  
And even though his lips had smiled down at Rhett, it was the eyes that had caught Rhett’s attention. He couldn’t determine what the meaning behind his look was, but he was also too exhausted to ask him about it at that moment.  
The sheriff shook his head and made his way to the two people in front of the paddock and greeted them with a warm smile. “Hey...what are you doing out here?” “Oh, Mister Rhett! I was showing Mister Link our newest horse! This is Lucero.” Lily pointed towards the white horse and Rhett observed it a bit, before he asked: “How many horses do you have?”  
“We have five. Including Lucero.”  
“So the other two are in the stable?”  
“Yes! They always go inside, when it’s getting dark and-”  
“Lily! Come inside!”  
Lily turned her head towards the house and pouted. “Looks like I have to go to bed…” Rhett put his hand on her shoulder and grinned at her. “Well it’s getting pretty dark outside anyway. So it’s not like you’re missing anything!” Lily giggled and nodded with a wide smile. “You’re right! Goodnight Mister Link and Mister Rhett!” She said and ran back into the house from where her mother had called for her a moment ago.  
Rhett looked after her before he turned around to face Link. He was observing the white horse that was slowly walking around the paddock, until he turned his head towards Rhett. “How about we go for a stroll around the backyard…?” The sheriff asked and this time he could see Link’s smile reaching his eyes when he agreed to his idea.  
Both men walked slowly side by side next to the fence of the paddock. The sun was almost completely set, but it was still bright enough to see the path in front of them.  
“What were you thinking about?”  
“When?”  
“When you stood next to Lily. It seemed like you were lost in your thoughts or something…”  
Link kicked a little stone out of his way and put his hands inside his pants pockets. “...Lily is a beautiful name, don’t you think?” “You were thinking about her name?” Rhett asked with a confused look on his face. Link nodded. “I always thought….well...if I would ever had a...a daughter...I would have named her Lily.”  
Rhett was biting his lip and held his gaze towards the earth. A lot of questions rushed through his mind, but he wasn’t able to ask any of them. Did Link still want a family? Would he liked to have a daughter? Was his plan to find a woman and settle down and raise kids? Was Rhett a part of this family life?  
Or was he...even a part of Link’s future at all? All these questions made Rhett sick to his stomach and he knew that he had to ask them eventually. But he was too afraid to hear the answers from Link.  
“But that isn’t important right now.” The dark haired man suddenly spoke again and Rhett lost his train of thoughts. “And what is important?” “I need to kill the Carson Brothers.” The sheriff stopped and looked at his friend. “Link...it’s too dangerous. You heard what Jim and Karen said. They even killed a marshall.”  
“So? Are we just letting them kill more innocent people? I have waited for a chance to get my revenge for so long, Rhett. I can’t stop now.” Rhett looked at Link for a moment and the other man held his gaze with a stern look on his face. With a sigh the blonde man started to walk again and murmured: “I think you shouldn’t take this too lightly. How about we just see what kind of people they are, before you just raise your gun and shoot at them?” “If it makes you happy…”  
Rhett could hear Link’s bugged voice and turned around again. “Link, I’m just worried about you, can’t you understand that!?” Link looked up at the sheriff and bit his lip, before he replied: “I know that, Rhett! And I understand that, but…” He shook his head and looked to the ground before he continued: “....but can’t you understand how important it is for me to end this once and for all? I want to move on. I want to leave the past behind me…”  
Rhett’s anger dissolved in an instant and he grabbed Link’s arms to pull him in for a hug. The smaller man put his arms around Rhett’s body and put his forehead on Rhett’s shoulder. They stood there for a moment and Rhett had started to stroke gently over Link’s back. But when his hand had reached the other man’s neck, Link had suddenly stepped back to free himself from the hug.  
“Don’t. We’re still near the house and….someone could see us.” Rhett’s hand twitched a bit when he heard Link’s cold words and the sheriff nodded a bit, before he followed the other man back to the house. But while Rhett’s eyes were glued to Link’s back, he asked himself if his friend had also talked about the sheriff, when he had mentioned that he wanted to leave his past behind him.

 

Rhett swung his legs onto the bed as Link entered the room. The dark haired man was already shirtless, but still had his pants on when he walked over to the couch. “And you’re really okay with sleeping on that...thing?” Rhett asked worryingly and examined the couch once more.  
“Of course! You’re taller than me, so it wouldn’t be fair if I got the bed.”  
“If you say so…” Rhett answered and saw that Link was undoing his belt, so he turned himself to the wall and closed his eyes. “You’re turning off the light once you’re finished?” The sheriff asked before he snuggled up under the blanket. “Of course~” The other man replied and Rhett could hear the clothes rustling for a while, before Link locked the door and blew out the candle inside the lamp. The couch creaked a bit and Rhett tried to ignore the noises coming from the piece of furniture to fall asleep.  
But after a while and another creak from the couch, he could also hear some silent footsteps and as Rhett was about to open his eyes the covers behind his back were lifted. His brow furrowed and he stared into the darkness, while he felt that someone was gently laying down behind him, before crawling under the blanket.  
“Link…?” Rhett asked in a soft voice and felt the other man’s breath in his neck and his hand on Rhett’s shoulder. “...I’m sorry, Rhett. I think, I...I was a bit mean to you today…” Rhett exhaled loudly and carefully turned himself around so he wouldn’t crush Link in this tiny bed, when he tried to face him. He put his arm around Link’s body and could feel the smaller man coming closer in an instant.  
“You don’t need to apologize, Link. It’s...a lot to take in at the moment, don’t you think?” He felt Link’s face touching his chest, when he nodded and Rhett put his hand in his hair to caress it fondly. “Everything...is so different suddenly. We have found the Carson Brothers...but we also….we also have to hid...all of this…” Rhett could barely see Link in this darkness, but he could imagine the anxious look on his friend’s face. So he placed his lips on Link’s forehead for a second and whispered: “Whatever happens, Link...I’m here for you. Don’t forget that…!”  
He felt Link’s fingers wandering over his chest, up on his neck and across his cheeks, until they found Rhett’s lips. “Can...can you...promise me that, Rhett…?” Rhett kissed Link’s finger slowly and felt the hand resting in the back of his neck afterwards.  
“Only if you also promise me something…”  
“What…?”  
The sheriff pulled Link’s face so close to his own, that he could feel the other man’s breath against his lips. “...promise me that you won’t get injured, when you’re trying to get rid of the Carson brothers. I...I can’t stand the thought of losing you, Link.”  
Rhett felt something wet on his fingers, which were resting on Link’s cheek, before he heard a quiet sniffle.  
“I...I promise, Rhett….”  
The blonde man silenced the teary noises coming from his partner by putting their lips together.  
A single tear had managed to sneak into the kiss and the saltiness of it made Rhett shiver, before Link’s tongue erased the taste of it in the next moment.


	20. The Carson Brothers

The two cowboys were greeted by Lily and Karen in the living room, after they had left the guest room completely dressed and with all their belongings in their hands. “It’s very sad that you want to leave us so soon.” Karen said with a gloomy smile as she brought two mugs with coffee to them. “Well...we don’t want to bother your family too much. And we have some things to take care of.”  
“Mum? Can Mister Link and Mister Rhett come with me when I get the groceries?” Karen brushed through her daughter’s hair and shook her own head. “No, you heard them. They have some important stuff to do, darling.” “But Muuuuum-!”  
“It’s okay, Mrs Stevenson. We can help Lily first and then leave.” Link said with a grin on his face, when he saw how excited Lily looked at him. “You heard that, Mum!? Pleeeease, can they come with me?” Karen sighed a bit and gave Rhett and Link an apologizing smile. “Only if it’s really okay for you…” Link nodded again and Rhett couldn’t suppress a grin, when he saw Lily dancing around in excitement.  
He was wondering why that little girl liked their company so much.

 

A few minutes later Rhett and Link walked down the main street once more, but this time with the little girl in between them. Lily pointed occasionally to different buildings and explained to the guys what businesses they could find there.  
But after being quiet for a while she looked up to Link and asked: “Mister Link...do you have a girlfriend?” Link raised his eyebrows and glanced at Rhett, before his gaze focused on Lily. “Why are you asking that?” “Because...I have decided that I want to marry you, Mister Link!”  
Rhett silenced his giggles by putting his hand in front of his mouth, while Link looked disbelieving at the little girl. “What…?” “You seem like a fine man, Mister Link! And my mother always said, that I need to make sure to marry a fine man!”  
Rhett felt a slap on his shoulder and turned his head to the side, so Lily wouldn’t see his grin while Link asked: “Well...how old are you exactly, Lily?” “I’m 10!” Link stopped and squatted down in front of her, before he pushed his hat out of his face with one finger. “See...the problem is that I’m already 26, Lily. So I’m way too old for you. Maybe you should look for a guy that is the same age as you?”  
Lily pouted and looked to the ground, before she replied: “...are you just saying that because you’re already married, Mister Link?” Link laughed and shook his head. “I’m not married, Lily.” “But you’re so good looking! Mister Rhett, why isn’t Mister Link married?” Rhett was surprised by this question and gave Link a once-over, before he answered.  
“Well...maybe he hasn’t found the right person yet…?” Rhett assumed with a thoughtful smile on his lips and saw that Link was standing up again. “No, I think I already found the right person for me. But a marriage isn’t that important, Lily. It only matters that you’re with a person, who can make you happy.”  
Rhett’s heart raced after he had heard the words from Link and the sheepish smile on the other man’s lips made the sheriff blush. Lily was about to say something else, but Rhett put his hand on her shoulder and said: “I think we shouldn’t let your mother wait for too long, okay? So let’s get the groceries!” “Okay!” Lily exclaimed happily and started to run down the street towards the store. Rhett and Link followed her and the blonde man was still thinking about Link’s word, when he suddenly heard another question: “...do you think that you have found the right person, Rhett?”  
The sheriff stopped for a moment and turned his face towards Link. The other man also stopped and looked at him, waiting for an answer with an uncertain facial expression. But Link’s worried mien changed into a heartwarming smile, when Rhett answered with a firm voice: “Absolutely.”  
“LET ME GO!!!”  
The high-pitched voice froze both of the men for a moment before they looked down the street and stormed forward. Rhett was sure that it was Lily’s voice and his worries were confirmed when they saw Lily in front of a man. He was holding her wrist as she tried to get away from him, while she kept yelling. Rhett couldn’t believe that no one seemed to care about the little girl and just ignored what was going on.  
Link was faster than the sheriff and grabbed the men’s arm to pull it away from Lily. “Let her go! NOW!” When Rhett arrived at the group, he saw that Lily managed to get away from the guy, so Rhett put his hands on her shoulders to bring her to the side. Link was still holding the man’s arm, when the guy raised his arm suddenly to free it from Link’s grip. The next things happened so fast, that Rhett gasped at the sight in front of him when everything came to a halt.  
A gun barrel was placed under Link’s chin and the other guy had his finger laying on the trigger. But Link had also drawn his gun and was holding it against the man’s stomach. While Rhett feared for his friends life, he noticed that Link had a contemptuous look in his eyes which he had never seen before.  
“What do ya’ think ya’ doin’, boy?” The man asked with a raspy voice and raised his head a bit to look Link directly into the eyes. “I’m about to put a hole in your stomach, if you try to move one inch…” Link hissed as a reply and saw that the man raised his eyebrow in a surprised fashion. “Ah…? We have a brave one here…” “Zac? What are ya’ doin’? I want my fuckin’ liquor!!”  
Rhett saw that another man walked up to their group and it wasn’t until the man in front of Link replied to him, that Rhett finally knew what was going on.  
“Shut up, John. I was just ‘bout to blow this pretty little head off.” Rhett turned to Lily and said: “Stay here!” in a firm voice, before he went up to Link and Zac. Now he understood why Link was so aggressive. They had managed to run right into the Carson brothers. But this was way too dangerous.  
“Hey...can we all try to calm down for a moment…?” The sheriff asked, but he was greeted by a gun when John walked around his brother. “Ha! Never seen these stupid faces here before! Guess no one would miss either of them.” John said in a scratchy voice, but Link gave him a deadly look and yelled: “Don’t you dare lay a finger on him!! If you do that, I’ll blow your brother into pieces!! This is between YOU and ME!” “Big words from such a lil’ mouth, don’t ya’ think?” Zac mocked and saw that Link was looking back at him now. “Zaaaac! Can ya’ just shoot that damn boy now? I want my fucking drink…”  
“How about a duel?” Rhett saw that all three men were looking at him when he said that, so he continued quickly: “That way you guys can have your drinks and he has a fair chance to duel with Zac.” Zac clicked his tongue and revealed his missing teeth, when he grinned. “‘Ya boys are thinking ‘yar some kind of heroes?”  
“I just want my revenge!” Link grumbled and Zac looked at him for a moment, before he pulled his gun away. John also lowered his gun and spat on the ground in front of Rhett’s feet, while Zac said: “‘kay. I’m gonna duel with this kid. Meet me at the Brookside mountains. East of this town. And be there when the sun rises!” The brothers turned around and walked down the street, while Link slowly put his gun away. Rhett walked over to his friend and grabbed him by his shoulder to turn him around.  
“Are you nuts!? That...that could’ve been your end! Why did you provoke him so much?” Link looked up to Rhett and blinked a few times, before he answered in a low voice: “I’m...sorry, Rhett. I just couldn’t think anymore.” Rhett wanted nothing more than to hug Link to calm both of them down, but he knew that there were too many people on the street to do such a thing.  
So he just pulled his hands away and turned to Lily, who was standing shakingly a few feet away. “Hey...are you okay? I’m sorry that I was so harsh to you! I just didn’t want you to get in trouble.” Lily nodded a bit and came over to the guys, while she said: “I was very scared...those men are so evil.” Rhett agreed and grabbed the hand of the little girl, before he said: “Let’s get the groceries now and head back home, shall we?” 

 

Rhett was picking on the guitar strings without having a melody in his mind. But just hearing the sounds from the instrument calmed him down, while he also listened to the cracking of the fire pit. Sometimes he would open his eyes to glance at Link. To observe him for a moment.  
The other man leaned on a big rock and his eyes were glued to the flames while his hands fumbled with the knife of his sister. Link had barely said a word after the encounter with the Carson brothers in town. Rhett and Link had helped Lily and brought her back home, before they had made their way to the Brookside mountains.  
The Stevensons had insisted that Rhett and Link should’ve spend another night at their home, but Rhett declined that offer with thanks. They needed to meet the brothers in these mountains early in the morning anyway, so why not sleep here? But it made him nervous and worried to see Link being so withdrawn into himself. So he thought a little bit of music would cheer up his mood after their dinner. But it seemed to only have an effect on Rhett and not on his partner in any way.  
“...I’m really sorry, Rhett.” The blonde man stopped playing and opened his eyes to look at Link. “Why are you apologizing?” Link’s finger stroked over the blade in his hands without hurting himself, while his blue eyes followed his own movements.  
“...I...I don’t think I can keep my promise.”  
“...why do you think that?”  
Link put the knife away in a smooth motion and laid his arm on the top of his knee. “I’m not sure if I can defeat the Carson brothers.” Rhett put his guitar to the side and slid himself closer to Link. “But you wanted your revenge, right? So why would you think that you’re not able to beat them?” The dark haired man shook his head and bit his lip, before he replied: “It’s so different now, Rhett…” Rhett saw that Link was lowering his gaze to the ground, while his hands brushed through his hair. “....I only had one goal in my entire life after Stevie died. I just wanted to get my revenge. I wanted to kill those bastards, who took her life….but….then I met you….”  
The sheriff heard that Link’s voice was getting quieter with every word and they sat in silence for a short moment, because Rhett didn’t know what Link meant by that. He assumed that Link was talking about justice and him being a sheriff again, but the next words surprised him.  
“...you became so important to me. You brought a new meaning to my life. However at one point I felt like I had to decide. Between you and my original goal. But...you assured me that you wouldn’t leave me. That you weren’t against me, despite the fact that you were fighting for justice. And I was so happy that I could continue my journey as planned and didn’t have to give up being with you.”  
Rhett was still listening to his friend, but he could hear his shaking voice and saw that Link was clenching his fist on top of his knee. The blonde man placed his hand on Link’s shoulder and asked: “But...what is so different now, Link? I said that I would be staying with you. And I haven’t changed my mind in any way…” Link pulled his hand out of his hair and laid it on top of Rhett’s, before he raised his head to look at the sheriff.  
The sapphires were filled with water, when Link whispered: “That I….that I can’t decide which goal is more important to me. I still want to kill the Carson Brothers. But I...but I also want to live with you, Rhett.”  
“But Link...I told you, I won’t hate you for killing those men! So I won’t leave you after that-!”  
“That’s not the point, Rhett! The point is that...that I could…” Link’s voice broke off and Rhett noticed a tear rolling down his cheek, before Link could continue to talk: “...Rhett...I could die tomorrow. What if those guys...kill me? I don’t want that to happen! I was okay with giving up my life to fight those guys before. But...not since I met you. You became the reason for me to wake up every morning. And I don’t-!”  
“Shhh…!” Rhett whispered and placed his hands on Link’s cheeks to wipe away his tears. “Stop crying, Link. You won’t die, okay? I won’t let that happen.”  
“But Rhett-!”  
“You heard me, right? I will not let them kill you.”  
The blonde man placed a light kiss on the other man’s lips to emphasize his words. He looked deep into Link’s watery eyes after the kiss and whispered: “I couldn’t live without you anymore, Link. So I will do whatever is necessary to protect you.” Link sobbed a bit and stole another kiss from Rhett, before he put his arms around the blonde man to hug him tightly. “I’m...I’m just so scared, Rhett…!”  
“Trust me...you’re way stronger than those guys. You will get your revenge on them. And we will celebrate your victory after that, okay? Just the two of us. Because there is no way that you will lose.” Rhett whispered in Link’s ear and pressed his small body against his own. He started to caress Link’s hair gently and listened to his quiet sobs, while he looked up into the sky to glance at the stars. While his partner slowly calmed down, the sheriff made another promise to himself.  
The promise to finally tell the man in his arms about his feelings, when all of this was over.


	21. The Duel

Link stood at the foot of the Brookside mountains and stared at the horizon. The sun was slowly rising and shined directly into the man’s face, while he watched the two horses coming towards him. Each horse had a man on its back and Link waited patiently until his enemies arrived at the scene. Rhett was standing near some rocks and also looked at the newcomers. His heart raced and he started to fear for his friends’ life again, when he glanced over to Link.  
The Carson brothers came to a halt next to some other rocks and descended from their horses. Rhett saw that they whispered to one another before Zac made his way slowly towards Link, while John stayed next to the horses. It was a good decision from Rhett to leave Rey at their camp, which wasn’t too close to their current location. The sheriff was worried that the brothers could have tried to harm their horse and he didn’t want to risk that.  
Zac came to halt in front of Link, a few feet apart from him and spoke in his raspy voice: “Didn’t think ya’ would come...seems like ya’ want to end ya’ life as soon as possible, eh?” “I just want my revenge. So I will duel you first. And then your brother John.” Zac laughed and spat to the ground, before he glanced at his brother. “This idiot thinks that he can kill me!” John laughed also and shook his head.  
“So...can we begin now?” The dark-haired man asked and Zac shrugged his shoulders, before he turned his back to Link. Rhett watched his friend doing the same, while both of them pulled their guns out. The blue sapphires glanced at the sheriff for a moment and Link smiled at him, before he looked straight ahead again. “Three steps, boy. Then ya’ can turn ‘round and-...hehe...try to shoot me!”  
Rhett’s heart began to race when the two men started to walk in the different directions. The spurs on their cowboy boots made a clanking noise, whenever they would take a step. As soon as their feet had touched the ground for a third time, both men spun around and Rhett held his breath. Everything that followed happened in an instant, but it felt to Rhett as time had slowed down.  
Link turned his body and his hand pulled out Stevie’s knife, while his other hand still held the gun. Zac was trying to aim at Link when he spun around, but he had to squint his eyes when something bright was shining at him suddenly. Three gunshots were heard after that and Zac screamed in pain, while he fell to the ground. Link had used the blade to reflect the sunlight into Zac’s eyes and was still aiming at the body that laid on the ground. Rhett stared with mouth agape to his friend and he saw that Link was in shock, before he turned his head around to grin at Rhett.  
The sheriff wanted to compliment him, when Link’s eyes widened a second later and he also fell to the floor with a loud scream. Rhett looked disbelievingly around and saw that John stood next to the rocks and had drawn his gun, which was pointing at Link. “Ya’ think, ya’ can kill my brother like that!?” Link tried to sit up and stared angrily at John, while he yelled: “You’re playing unfair, you bastard! This was a duel between me and Zac!”  
“Never said I would play fair, did I? And now say goodbye you piece of-”  
Another row of gunshots were heard and John’s body twitched a whole lot, before he also fell to the ground. The horses next to him ran away, when they heard the gunshots so close to them and Link saw that John’s blood was painting the sand underneath him red.  
The dark haired man turned his head around and stared surprised to his friend, who was still aiming at the place where John had stood a second ago. The sheriff breathed heavily and lowered his gun, before his gaze caught Link’s and he ran over to his friend. “Oh my god, Link...where did he hurt you?” Link was holding his shoulder and was still speechless for a moment, while Rhett tried to help him to arise. “Did he hurt your shoulder? Let me see it.”  
“...Rhett...you…you just killed John.” Rhett swallowed a bit and saw that Link was still staring at him with wide eyes. “I-I know. I’m sorry, I know that you wanted to kill both of them, but when he aimed at you, I just couldn’t-!” Link shook his head quickly and Rhett saw that his eyes were filled with tears again. But this time his friend was also smiling.  
“I’m...just amazed. You helped me to win against the Carson brothers! Even though you had to kill someone...” “But...I told you, didn’t I?” Link raised his eyebrows in question and waited for Rhett to continue, while he tried to wipe his tears away with his uninjured hand, that was still holding the revolver. “I will protect you. Always.”  
A smile started to appear on the smaller man’s face, before they both heard an angry scream. Rhett turned his head and he saw that Zac’s body had moved and that he was resting on one arm. The look in his eyes was completely crazy and deadly as he yelled: “GONNA KILL YA!!’!” His voice made Rhett freeze for a moment, so he realized too late that the guy was holding his gun again and pointed at him and Link.  
“RHETT, WATCH OUT!” His friend screamed and Rhett felt that his body was pushed aside in the next moment, before he heard a gunshot. “LINK!!” The sheriff saw that the smaller man fell against his own body and he noticed that Link was grabbing his shirt hastily to keep his balance. Before the blonde man could process what was happening, he saw that Link’s gun was pointed in Zac’s direction. Zac’s eyes closed and he lost his gun while his body fell to the floor again, when Link’s bullets managed to hit the guy right in the head.  
Rhett’s pulse quickened, when he suddenly felt that Link’s body became slack and was sliding to the ground. The blonde man reacted quickly and caught his friend to bring him down to the ground cautiously. But when he did that, he felt something warm and wet and as he sat Link on the sand, he noticed a fresh wound on his waist.  
“Oh my god, Link! He...he shot you!...Just…because you pushed me aside!” Link’s uninjured hand had put the gun to the ground and was now pressing on the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding, while he breathed heavily. “It isn’t...that bad...the bullet didn’t even enter my body......and I...didn’t want you...to get hurt…!”  
“You stupid idiot! As if I would be any happier, if you’re getting hurt instead!” Rhett exclaimed and saw that Link looked at him with bleary eyes, while a sad smile appeared on his lips. “I told you...that I wouldn’t be able...to keep my promise…” Tears started to roll down Rhett’s face, when he put his arms around Link’s body as gently as he could.  
“But I will keep mine, Link. I will protect you better from now on. I never want to see you get hurt ever again!” The sheriff heard a sob from Link followed by a small chuckle next to his ear. “Thank you, Rhett. Thank you for everything....That you care for me. And...that you helped me today.”  
When Rhett loosened the embrace to look into Link’s face, he saw a warm smile on it despite the tears, which were running down his cheeks. “I can’t believe that we did it…! They’re finally dead….and I couldn’t have made it without you. Thank you so much, Rhett! I’m...I’m so glad, that you’re here for me…!”  
The blonde man could still feel new tears forming in his eyes, when he placed his hands on Link’s cheek. His thumbs started to wipe away the other man’s tears, while Rhett lost himself in the beautiful blue sapphires. He bit his lips for a short moment, to hide the fact that they were shaking, before he whispered: “I...I need to tell you something. I should’ve told you that long ago, but...I just...I couldn’t.” Rhett saw that Link watched him with an unsteady look in his eyes, so the blonde man took a shaky breath and blinked his tears away quickly.  
“...I love you, Link. And I...I wish, I had told you that sooner…!”  
The unsteady look turned into an affectionate look and Link grinned happily at Rhett, while he replied: “...I knew that already, Rhett. I could feel that. Every kiss from you showed me how much I meant to you.”  
Link tilted his head slightly and placed a soft kiss on Rhett’s lip, before he whispered against them: “But I love you too, Rhett. You had stolen my heart in the moment, that our eyes met for the first time. And it was yours ever since.”  
Rhett’s lips turned into a lovely smile and he kissed his partner again, before he removed his hands from Link’s face and placed them behind his back and under his legs. “I will make sure that this will never change. I will not allow that someone else is taking your heart, as long as I live...!”  
The sheriff said with a soft voice and raised Link gently from the ground to bring him back to their camp to treat his wounds and to celebrate with his partner finally.


	22. Someone Special

Two days later both cowboys sat next to their fire pit, while the sun was slowly setting. It was very silent except some occasionally paper rustling sounds. Link was hunched over the map and his finger traveled over some rivers and towns. “Have you ever been to Fuquay Varina?” The dark haired man asked, while his finger stopped on a town and he looked up to his friend.  
“Can’t say that I have. Do you think they need people like us there?”  
Link grinned a bit and sat up straight again. “Of course. Every town needs some bounty hunters. There are criminals everywhere!”  
“Well...there weren’t any in my town, until you came to Buies Creek...”  
Rhett giggled when Link’s cowboy hat was thrown at him and missed him slightly. “You jerk! I should’ve left you in Chalybeate Springs!” “I think you were the one, who needed help to get on and off his horse. Isn’t that right, Mister Neal?”  
Link stuck his tongue out at Rhett and glanced to the horses, which were nibbling on each other's manes. The contrast of the white and black coats made Link smile and he asked his friend: “Do you think it was okay to take their horse?”  
“It was your idea, wasn’t it? And you needed a horse anyway. Just tell yourself that it was Lily’s fault for introducing you to Lucero in the first place.”  
“Rhett…”  
Rhett grinned at Link and said: “Come on, I’m just joking, Link. But honestly...with all that money they will be able to buy 100 more horses. So everything is fine.” While Link nodded a bit and sighed quietly, the sheriff thought back to the events from a few days ago.  
After he had treated Link’s wounds they had gone back to the corpses of the Carson brothers. Neither of them wanted to just leave them there so Rhett reminded Link of the wanted posters. But Link hadn’t felt right about just taking the money for murdering the guys, so they thought of a new plan. They had brought the corpses to the Stevenson’s house very early in the morning and had attached a note as well as the wanted posters on them. The note had thanked the family and had suggested, that Jim should take credit for murdering the criminals and that he should bring them to the authorities to get the reward.  
In exchange Rhett and Link had stolen the white horse Lucero from them, so both of them would be able to travel faster. All of that happened while the town was still asleep, so neither of them knew what the family thought of that move. But Rhett was sure that they had done the right thing, even if it had included stealing something.  
“What are you doing there anyway?” Link asked and interrupted Rhett’s thoughts with his question. The blonde man stared down at his lap and answered: “I’m writing a letter.” “You can write?”  
Link’s cowboy hat came flying back at him, while the smaller man catched it with a chuckle. Rhett realized that the ink on the tip of the feather had already dried so he dunked it into the ink jar again. “Who will receive the letter?”  
“Someone special.”  
The smaller man had a sad expression on his face when he heard the answer and stood up carefully to get some more coffee. “So that means that I’m not the only special person in your life?” The sheriff smiled at his letter and didn’t reply to that as he finished the next sentence. Link had walked over to the horses to pet them a bit, while the hand with his injured shoulder held the mug.  
Both cowboys lapsed into silence once again, until the scratching noises from the feather stopped and Link heard some soft sounds behind him. He turned around to see Rhett sitting next to the fire pit with his guitar in his hands, as he looked up to Link. The smile on the blonde man’s lips was so bewitching that Link sat down next to him gently, while Rhett started to play a melody.  
The sheriff lost himself in the blue sapphires once again, as he started to sing the song with all of his feelings that he had towards the man in front of him.

 

_“Do I need to tell you?_  
_I don't need to be untrue_  
_Not when I have a lover like you._

 

_Now it don't take that much thought_  
_Not with all the love you've got_  
_And you give it to me free_  
_Some might take that for granted but certainly not me_  
_No not when I have a lover like you_

 

_I haven't eyes for anyone else_  
_I'm thinking of you and nobody else_  
_I haven't eyes for anyone else but you_  
_Yooouuu~”_


	23. Her Request

“I hope that coffee is okay?”  
“Of course, don’t worry so much.”  
“I just want to make sure that you’re fine!”  
“I am. Like I said: Don’t worry.”  
“It’s just...I have no idea how to handle a pregnant woman.”  
“Well...it would really help me if you would sit down already. You’re making me nervous, Jessie.”  
The black haired woman sighed and poured some of the dark liquid in one of the three mugs on the table. “I’m sorry.” Jessie said with an honest voice and handed the mug to the blonde woman in front of her.  
Christy took the mug with a smile and placed it in front of the man, who was sitting next to her. “Don’t apologize. I don’t even know how to handle this sometimes.” Jessie smiled and gave another mug to Christy, before she sat herself down across from the two people. “As long as you two are doing good, that’s all that matters, right?”  
Christy nodded and looked over to Chase, who had put his arm around the young woman and was smiling at Christy. “I think we are doing good. But what about you? Do you think your voice is ready for the stage again?” Jessie shrugged her shoulders and leaned back a bit, while she looked into her mug. “I was afraid that it wasn’t just the sickness that was killing my voice.”  
Christy grabbed the hand from her best friend and gave her an encouraging smile. “But the people are missing you.” “She’s right, Jessie. Everyone is asking how you’re doing and when you will return.” Chase said and drank a gulp from the coffee. “And...you know that he wouldn’t want you to stop singing.”  
Jessie bit his lips and brushed through her hair, before she looked at Christy. “I know...and...maybe I really should sing again. Just to get everything out of my head.” Christy grinned at the black haired woman and nodded. “This is the Jessie that I know! So how about we-?”  
The blonde woman interrupted herself, when all three of them heard a loud knock. Jessie raised her eyebrows in question and walked over to the entrance, before she opened the front door. “Good day! Are you Miss Lane?” The woman nodded and gave the man in front of her a once-over. He handed her a letter and grabbed his hat in a polite gesture.  
“This is for you.” Jessie took the letter with a surprised face and asked: “How much do you get for bringing this to me?” “Nothing! It’s already paid. Have a good day, Miss!” The black haired woman watched confused as the man left her front porch, until she turned around and closed her door. “What was it, Jessie?” Christy asked with a curious voice and looked at her friend, when she came back to the table. “I got a letter. But I wasn’t expecting one.”  
Jessie took a paper knife and cut the letter open gently, while she sat down again. Her eyes got big when something heavy fell into the palm of her hand, after she had turned the letter upside down. “What…?” The woman stared down at the sheriff star in her right hand with mouth agape. She had read the words ‘Buies Creek County’ on it, when she suddenly gasped loudly.  
“C-could it be-!?” Jessie placed the star onto the table, so that Chase and Christy could take a look at it while she unfolded the letter quickly. “Buies Creek County? But...that is our County. Does that mean...that this is Rhett’s…?” Christy asked, as she turned the star around. When the blonde woman didn’t get a reply from her friend, she looked up to her and was startled.  
The eyes of the black haired woman moved quickly over the words, while they slowly filled up with tears. Christy glanced at Chase and he swallowed a bit, before he asked: “I....is the letter...from Rhett?” At first Jessie didn’t answer, but when she had finished reading she leaned back and placed a hand in front of her eyes.  
“...Jessie…?” Christy started to worry about her friend, when she saw a smile appearing on her face before she took the hand away. Tears were rolling down Jessie’s face, but she grinned slightly at Christy as she handed her the letter. “It is from him. And he also wrote something to you.”  
The blonde woman swallowed nervously before she took the letter. Jessie watched as Christy’s eyes wandered over the paper, while she tried to wipe away her own tears. It didn’t surprise her to see Christy also get teary-eyed when she placed the letter on the table. The blonde woman took the hands of her best friend and placed the sheriff star in it, before she smiled at her.  
“...I told you, didn’t I? He will never forget about you.”  
Jessie nodded a bit and she could feel that her eyes started to tear up again when she tightened the grip around the badge in her hand, as she looked over to the letter again.  
Her lips curved into a beatific smile, before she whispered: “...and I will never forget about him either.”

 

  
_“Dear Jessie,_  
_I hope you’re doing fine!_  
_I know that you haven’t heard from me in a while. And I want to apologize for that._  
_I also know that you have been worried, but there is no need for that._  
_I’m fine._  
_But somehow everything went differently than I expected._  


  
_Do you remember the time we talked about my parents and how they left me behind?_  
_I told you that I couldn’t understand why they left me without hesitation._  
_And you said:_  
_‘Sometimes we have to leave something very precious behind to find our happiness.’_  
_I didn’t understand back then what you meant._  
_But now I do._  
_I never wanted to leave Buies Creek, my friends or you for anything in the world._  
_But it seems that I have to do that now, because I have found my happiness._  


  
_I want to thank you for everything, Jessie and I hope we will see each other again some day._  
_I also wanted to give the sheriff’s badge to you, so you won’t forget about me._  


 

  
_One last thing:_  
_Can you please tell Christy something from me?_  
_I’m very sorry that I took Link with me._  
_But I’ve complied with her request._  
_I was...and still am as gently as possible to him._  


 

_Always, Rhett”_

 

 

_**The End** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has read this fanfiction!  
> I put a lot of time and work into this story and I'm very happy that a lot of you guys seem to like it! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank my little sheep and my cute ferret for all their help!


End file.
